The bombers entered Finland from Norway's northern region, linking up with Finnish fighter jets for the rest of the flight. "Today, Finland has implemented cooperation with the strategic bombers of the United States in the territory of Finland," Finnish defense minister Antti Häkkänen announced.

"It is a normal cooperation carried out in the territory of a NATO member country and it demonstrate the basic pillar of common defense and deterrence," Häkkänen said.

But as the Barents Observer underscores, this flight was an unprecedented first: "But two B-52 strategic bombers over northern Finland is far from normal," the publication writes. "It has never happened before and shows the fundamental change in geopolitics following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022."