Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called for the verification of media reports suggesting that Finland is planning to host a NATO drone base designed for intelligence gathering on Russia.
Peskov emphasized the need to confirm the information, noting that such developments could violate earlier assurances made by Finland, News.Az reports, citing TASS.
“If you recall their statements when they were joining NATO, they said that Finland would not deploy any elements of military infrastructure near our borders,” Peskov said. “This is none other than elements of military infrastructure,” the Kremlin official concluded.
Earlier, Yle, Finland’s national public broadcasting company, reported that Helsinki had offered NATO to host a base for surveillance unmanned aerial vehicles. According to the news outlet, there are four potential locations for such a base.
Finland, which officially joined NATO in March 2023, declared the security of its borders and the lack of necessity to deploy the forces of the military bloc on its territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned that stationing NATO military infrastructure on Finnish soil would trigger an equivalent response.