Finnish and Swedish fighter planes intercepted Russian warplanes flying over the Gulf of Finland in September 2026, the first joint response by NATO’s newest members as concern over Russian intentions grows among Nordic countries.
The September 24 incident involved fighters from the Quick Response Alert program — a coordinated response by Nordic nations to Russian incursions — who identified a Tu-134 transport aircraft, MiG-31 fighter jets and Su-30 fighter jets in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland, according to the Finnish Air Force. According to Helsinki, it was the first joint operational “identification mission” for Finnish and Swedish forces under the program.
“It is a concrete expression of the readiness and trust we have built together — and an expression of the strength in the Nordic, Nordic-Baltic, and broader Nato cooperation in our part of the world,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote in a post on X. “The Baltic Sea has never been as vulnerable as it is now — but it has also never been better protected than it is right now.”
Meanwhile, also on September 24, the Danish Defence Intelligence Service released a finding that Moscow has potential plans to attack a NATO member in the coming months. The report notes the high number of sabotage incidents and drone incursions in NATO members’ territory since Russian invaded Ukraine in 2022. Those Russian-linked “hybrid” warfare techniques show few signs of abating, the Danish report said.
The grinding war in Ukraine has heightened tensions as NATO’s European members have supported Kiev’s fight to remain independent and in control of its national destiny. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s public statements have been clear that he considers NATO members as committing acts of aggression by helping Ukraine resist. Both Finland and Sweden joined NATO after Moscow’s invasion, further angering Putin. Denmark, Iceland and Norway are founding members of the nine-decade-strong alliance. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, former Soviet republics that have been directly threatened by Putin in recent years, also are NATO members.
Thomas Ahrenkiel, the head of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, said Denmark doesn’t think it likely that Putin would risk invading a NATO country soon, but didn’t rule out the possibility. There is a “low but growing risk that Russia will launch a limited military attack” against one or several NATO countries bordering Russia, he said, according to The Daily Express, a British newspaper.
NATO has stepped up its coordinated training and logistics in the Arctic, Baltic and Nordic regions in recent years, launching large-scale exercises year-round in northern Finland, Norway and Sweden. The alliance also has increased its maritime presence in the Baltic Sea and adjoining seas through the Baltic Sentry program. NATO air patrols also have been stepped up in Iceland and the strategic Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap. Denmark and the United States recently agreed to further fortify Greenland’s defenses. NATO’s Nordic members have integrated their air forces and have started to do the same with land and naval assets.