Finland looks to join Nato ‘without delay’
Finland’s leaders on Thursday came out in favor of applying to join Nato, and Sweden could do the same within days, in a historic realignment on the continent over two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbours. The Kremlin reacted by warning it will be forced to take retaliatory “military-technical” steps. Finland’s president and prime minister announced that the Nordic country should apply right away for membership in Nato, the military defence pact founded in part to counter the Soviet Union. The announcement means Finland is all but certain to apply — and gain admission — though the process could take months to complete. Sweden, likewise, is considering applying for membership.
KYIV: Finland’s leaders on Thursday came out in favour of applying to join Nato, and Sweden could do the same within days, in a historic realignment on the continent two-and-a-half months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbours.
The Kremlin reacted by warning it will be forced to take retaliatory “military-technical” steps.
On the ground, meanwhile, Russian forces pounded areas in Ukraine’s east, including the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, as part its offensive to take the vital industrial Donbas region, while Ukraine recaptured some towns and villages in the country’s northeast.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and PM Sanna Marin announced that the Nordic country should apply right away for membership in Nato, the military defence pact founded in part to counter the Soviet Union. “You (Russia) caused this. Look in the mirror,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said this week.
While the country’s parliament still has to weigh in, the announcement means Finland is all but certain to apply - and gain admission - though the process could take months to complete. Sweden, likewise, is considering applying.
That would represent a major change in Europe’s security landscape: Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, while Finland adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II.
Public opinion in both nations shifted dramatically in favour of Nato membership after the invasion, which stirred fears in countries along Russia’s flank that they could be next.
Such an expansion of the alliance would leave Russia surrounded by Nato countries in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic and would amount to a stinging setback for Putin, who had hoped to divide and roll back Nato in Europe but is instead seeing the exact opposite happen.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance would welcome Finland and Sweden with open arms.
Russia’s foreign ministry warned that Moscow “will be forced to take retaliatory steps of militarytechnical and other characteristics in order to counter the emerging threats to its national security”.
Explosions were heard on Thursday near the town of Bakhmut, an area of the Donbas that has seen heavy fighting. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were storming two villages there. Britain’s defence ministry said Russia’s focus on the Donbas has left its remaining troops around the northeastern city of Kharkiv vulnerable to counterattack from Ukrainian forces, which recaptured several towns and villages around the city.
Still, Russian rocket strikes Thursday killed one person and wounded three in a suburb of Kharkiv, the regional governor said. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Ukraine also said Russian forces had fired artillery and grenade launchers at Ukrainian troops in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, which has been a refuge for civilians fleeing Mariupol, and attacked in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions to the north.
Overnight airstrikes in Chernihiv killed three people, according to local media.
Also, the number of people who have fled Ukraine to escape Russia’s invasion has passed 6 million in Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the end of World War Two, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.
Attack on Ukraine