The Saimaa canal, which connects eastern Finland to Vyborg, remains closed thanks to unusually thick ice cover. The canal is currently topped with than half a metre of strong ice, causing one icebreaker to get stuck when it tried to clear the waterway on Wednesday.
The vessel, named ’Protector’, began clearing the ice on Wednesday. The intention was to have it clear all the way to Savonlinna by Thuesday, but things are now several days behind schedule.
Jukka Väisänen of the Transport Agency said that the problem was not so much the thickness of the ice, which was expected, but its strength. On Friday morning the vessel was stuck in Joutseno, halfway between Lappeenranta and Imatra.
The Helsinki region's public transport fares will rise by an average of 1.8 percent in early 2027.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre talked to the Russian leader on Tuesday.
With the opening of an Italian outlet, the Finnish fast food chain now operates in 10 different countries across Europe.
