Finland did not overreact to Friday's suspected drone incursion, minister says (original) (raw)

"One cannot say that we were 'caught with our pants down'," Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) said on Saturday morning.

Video screens in a TV studio, one screen showing a man on camera in a dark suit, and the other screen shows a journalist sitting beside him.

Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) appeared on Yle TV1's programme Ykkösaamu on Saturday morning. Image: Grigory Vorobyev / Yle

Finland did not overreact to a suspected drone incursion on Friday, according to Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP).

He confirmed that authorities had received information that "a few drones may have flown into Finland".

"One cannot say that we were 'caught with our pants down'," he said in an interview on Yle TV1's programme Ykkösaamu on Saturday morning.

Finland is said to have received intelligence at around 1am on Friday about the possibility of an explosives-carrying drone that was around 500 km away heading towards the country.

Ukraine struck Russia with a barrage of drones on Thursday night and early Friday. The closest target was Pskov, about 300 km from the Finnish coast.

Finnish authorities issued an emergency warning about a suspected military drone flying over the Uusimaa region at just before 4am on Friday. The region's roughly 1.8 million people were advised to take shelter until further notice.

The situation continued for about three hours until shortly after 7am, when the warning was lifted.

Communication issues

Defence Minister Häkkänen's comment echoed Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's (NCP) statement on Friday, saying that authorities did not overreact to the potentially dangerous situation.

According to Häkkänen, Finland was prepared to use force if the drones ended up in Finnish territory. In the end, however, military force was not required.

But some have criticised the authorities' communication about the situation on Friday. For example, members of the parliamentary defense committee were not informed about the drone threat until it was over. Instead they sought information from teletext and other media sources.

Many have noted that the alerts sent on the mobile app-based system Finland uses to issue emergency alerts — the Suomi 112 app — did not reach everyone on Friday, because it is not universally used in the country.

Cell broadcast system used in 20 countries

Many other countries have SMS-based alert systems that do not require people to have a third-party app installed to receive essential alerts and information, as they are sent directly to the devices.

Finland has tried using SMS for alerts in the past, including during the Covid crisis. But messages took a long time to reach recipients. Additionally, authorities were unable to target the notifications to certain geographical areas.

According to Häkkänen, the government has already allocated funds for a new alert system and there are plans to put it into use as soon as possible.

More than 20 countries already use or are developing a targeted, direct-to-device emergency alert system, using a technology known as cell broadcast.

For example, Sweden's SE-Alert system is set to be implemented this summer. Other countries using cell broadcast include the United States, South Korea, Japan, Canada and Brazil, among others.