Finland eyes Nato membership
FINLAND yesterday took a step towards fast-track membership of Nato, triggering a blunt warning from the Kremlin, as the war in Ukraine throttled supplies of Russian gas to Europe.
“Finland must apply for Nato membership without delay,” President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in Helsinki. “Nato membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” they said. “As a member of Nato, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance.”
But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned Russia would “definitely” see Finnish membership as a threat. The Russian foreign ministry said Moscow would be “forced to take reciprocal steps, military-technical and other, to address the resulting threats to its national security”.
In launching the invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin cited in part what he called the threat from Nato, which expanded eastwards after the Cold War. The foreign ministry accused Nato of seeking to create “another flank for the military threat to our country”.
“Helsinki should be aware of its responsibility and the consequences of such a move,” it said.
Finland has been a declared neutral in East-West crises for decades, and as recently as January its leaders ruled out Nato membership of the alliance.
But the February 24 invasion shocked the Nordic nation. It shares a 1300km border with Russia and its past is studded with conflict with its giant neighbour.
Finland’s entry will be “smooth and swift,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday. A special committee will announce Finland’s formal decision on a membership bid on Sunday.
Sweden, another neutral state, is expected to follow its neighbour.
Russia’s flow of gas to Europe fell meanwhile, spurring fears for Germany and other heavily-dependent economies. Russian energy giant Gazprom announced it would stop supplying gas via the Polish part of the Yamal-Europe pipeline following retaliatory sanctions that Russia announced against Western companies.
Gazprom said that gas transiting to Europe via Ukraine had dropped by a third, a fall it blamed on Ukraine’s pipeline operator, which the company denies and lays on Russia. Ukraine and Poland are major supply routes for Russian gas to Europe and the two sides have kept flows going despite the conflict.
The EU’s heavy reliance on Russian energy has made it reluctant to add oil and gas imports to sanctions that are inflicting a toll on Russia’s economy.
Germany accused Russia of using “energy as a weapon”.
Fighting in Ukraine has been concentrated on the south and east since Russia abandoned attempts to seize the capital Kyiv in the opening weeks of the war. Ukraine’s presidency said shelling continued throughout Lugansk, part of the Donbas region where Ukrainian forces are fiercely opposing Russian armour and Kremlin-backed separatists.
Russian troops are trying to take complete control of Rubizhne, block a key highway between Lysychansk and Bakhmut highway and seize Severodonetsk, the office said.
In the north-eastern region of Chernigiv, three people were killed and 12 others wounded yesterday in a strike on a school in Novgorod-Siversky, the emergency services said.
Across Ukraine, lives have been turned upside down, forcing millions to make anguished choices of how to respond.
The UN Human Rights Council, in a session snubbed by Russia, was due to vote on a draft resolution calling for an investigation into war crimes.
The invasion has sparked an exodus of nearly 6 million civilians, many of whom bear accounts of torture, sexual violence and indiscriminate destruction. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said it had received reports of more than 10000 alleged crimes, with 622 suspects identified.
In the southern port city of Mariupol, besieged troops in the vast Azovstal steelworks have been holding out against weeks-long bombardment, refusing demands to surrender.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that “negotiations are under way” about the situation in Mariupol, focusing on an operation that would begin with the evacuation of the seriously wounded.