Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland, has been accused of offering fighter jets to Ukraine without first discussing it with her government, the president or military.
s Marin, who faces elections next month, suggested Finland could donate the planes during a surprise trip to Kyiv.
The centre-left politician was criticised for ignoring a constitutional obligation to consult on foreign policy and security matters and making the visit so close to the April 2 vote.
In Ukraine, Ms Marin said Finland could donate some of her country’s 62 F/A-18 Hornet fighters, which are due to be replaced by 64 F-35A jets.
“The discussions are in the very early stages,” Ms Marin said, as she raised Ukrainian hopes that Volodymyr Zelensky’s demands for jets from the West could be met.
But Sauli Niinisto, Finland’s president, told the Finnish News Agency there “has been no discussion with anyone”.
The comments also surprised the heads of the defence committee and foreign affairs committee, Finnish media reported.
Major General Juha-Pekka Keranen, the air force commander, told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper the plans had not been discussed with the military.
He said the jets would be needed until new F-35s were ready in about 2030.
Finland, which borders Russia, decided to ditch decades of non-alignment to apply to join Nato after Vladimir Putin launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ms Marin (37) is one of Putin’s fiercest critics in the EU, and is being tipped as a possible candidate for the next European Commission president.
Polls have shown she is the most popular prime minister in 30 years but her Social Democrats are trailing the centre-Right National Coalition Party.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian partisans have damaged a stretch of railway in occupied Kherson in a guerilla attack on Russian logistics.
The Atesh movement claimed responsibility for the explosive strike, which they said would hinder the supply of Russian troops in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“We work around the clock for the destruction of the occupying forces and the liberation of Ukraine,” the group said.
A video shared alongside the social media post showed a detonation alongside a section of railroad.
A subsequent picture shared by the Baza Telegram channel appeared to show that just a single track of the railway had been damaged.
Partisans have played an increasingly important role in helping degrade Russian forces before assaults by Ukraine’s conventional forces.
Natalia Humeniuk, a military spokesman, said the railroad attack was a “rehearsal” for more substantial strikes to come against Russian positions.
Atesh, a movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, has been behind a growing number of attacks in southern Ukraine.