The incident comes amid Kiev’s ongoing UAV attacks on oil facilities in Russia’s Leningrad Region

Ukraine has confirmed that two of its drones crashed in Finland on Sunday and has issued a formal apology, claiming the UAVs hadn’t been sent to the Nordic country deliberately.

The incident was first reported by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who ventured that the drones were launched as part of Kiev’s ongoing attacks on neighboring Russia’s Leningrad Region.

Later in the day, in an X post of his own, Finnish President Alexander Stubb revealed that “one of the drones has been confirmed to be Ukrainian in origin.” The NATO country’s air force had previously identified it as an AN196 model used by Kiev’s military.

Stubb emphasized that while “there is no military threat to Finland… the authorities maintain readiness to react to future incidents.” No casualties were reported as a result of the incident.

On Monday, the press secretary of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, Georgy Tikhiy, stated that Kiev has “offered its apologies to the Finnish side for the incident.”

“We can confidently say that no Ukrainian drones were ever sent toward Finland,” Tikhiy added, suggesting the UAVs had likely veered off-course due to Russian electronic warfare systems.

According to the Nordic country’s Defense Ministry, “several small, slow-flying, low-flying objects were observed in Finnish airspace over the sea and in southeastern Finland on Sunday morning.”

F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets were deployed to monitor the drones, but did not use suppressive fire so as to avoid collateral damage, according to Yle News.

The Defense Ministry stated that the UAVs eventually crashed near the city of Kouvola, roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the Russian border.

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Since early March, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported that its air defenses have shot down hundreds of Ukrainian drones in Russian airspace on an almost daily basis. The Kremlin has characterized the UAV incursions as “terrorist attacks.”

On Wednesday, an unusually large number of drones were downed over Leningrad Region, with the raid resulting in a blaze in the port area of Ust-Luga, which is home to a major gas-processing complex as well as Europe’s largest oil terminal specializing in the transshipment of petroleum products from rail to sea tankers.

There were no injuries among civilians in the region, according to the authorities.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, a Ukrainian UAV hit the chimney of the Auvere Power Plant in northeastern Estonia, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal reported.

At around the same time, another Ukrainian drone impacted neighboring Latvia, the country’s Defense Ministry stated.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene had said early in the week that a UAV launched from Ukraine went astray and crashed in the south of the Baltic nation on Monday. According to the Baltic nation’s Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas, the drone went undetected by NATO radar because it was “flying at an altitude of less than 300 meters.”

Last September, after more than a dozen drones were reported crossing into Poland, Russia accused Ukraine of deliberately sending UAVs into NATO territory as part of a false flag attack, apparently with a view to pitting the Western military bloc directly against Russia.