The Finnish Defence Forces will be holding local defence exercises throughout Finland in August-September. They are part of normal inter-agency cooperation.

In the areas of Joensuu, Liperi and Kontiolahti, exercises will be held from 31 August to 7 September 2024.

800 Finnish Defence Forces troops and 80 vehicles will be involved. Troops and military and official vehicles will be seen on public roads.

Two Hornet fighter jets from the Karelia Air Wing will also take part in the exercise.

The exercises will be held at, among others, Joensuu Airport, the Onttola shooting range, Ylämylly, Jaamankangas and Kontioranta. Blank cartridges may be used at specific sites.

The exercises focuses on areas such as civil defence and evacuation as well as broad-spectrum influencing. The exercises strengthen the performance and readiness of local defence as well as inter-agency cooperation.

The participants in the exercise are the Regional State Administrative Agency for Eastern Finland, Wellbeing services county of North Karelia – Siun sote, Rescue Department of North Karelia, Eastern Finland Police Department, North Karelia border guard district, regional municipalities, parish, Finnish Red Cross, Voluntary Rescue Service (Vapepa), and Pohjois-Karjalan Sähkö.

The defence exercise can be followed at https://paikallisturvallisuus.fi (Finnish only) and on the Finnish Army’s social media accounts.

If citizens should have any questions or comments during the exercise, the on-call service number is (0)299 451 975.