NATO expands amid Russian invasion of Ukraine – Finland’s strong reaction to Russia

On Thursday, the president and prime minister of Finland said that they support fast applying for NATO membership “without delay,” in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A few hours later, the Kremlin issued a statement in response to the event, stating that Finland’s decision to join NATO will not contribute to increased stability and security in Europe.

In Helsinki, at a joint news conference with Johnson and Niinisto, the Head of State of Finland stated that should his nation of 5.5 million people become a member of NATO, Russia could only blame itself.

“This is due to Russia’s actions. “Look, at the mirror,” Niinisto said on Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, stated that Russia’s reaction to the move will rely on the exact actions that NATO will take to put its infrastructure closer to Russian borders.

He pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already given the order to figure out methods to enhance the country’s defenses in the west in response to NATO’s encroachment closer to Russian borders.

Membership in NATO would improve Finland’s sense of overall safety. In a joint statement, Niinistö and Marin expressed their agreement that the addition of Finland as a member of NATO will benefit the organization as a whole.

“There should be no delay in Finland submitting its application to join NATO. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the remaining measures that need to be completed on a national level in order to make this decision will be taken as soon as possible within the next few days.”

The statement that was released on Thursday comes a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed a military cooperation pact while he was in Finland and Sweden.

On Wednesday, the United Kingdom made a commitment to assist Sweden and Finland in the event that those two Nordic countries came under Russian attack.

This latest turn of events has occurred during a period in which Two senior US intelligence officials testified in front of Congress on Tuesday that Russian armed troops currently invading Ukraine have been slowed down by Ukrainian armed forces and have shifted to a war of attrition strategy as a result.

During a hearing on global threats held by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Lieutenant General Scott Berrier stated, “The Russians aren’t winning, and the Ukrainians aren’t winning, and we’re at a bit of a stalemate.”

Ben Wallace, the Defense Secretary of the United Kingdom, may have also revealed the reason why this happened when he stated that

“GPS receivers have been discovered taped to the dashboards of downed Russian Su-34 fighter jets in order for the pilots to keep track of where they were due to the low quality of their own systems.” said Ben Wallace, noting that the bad state of the Russian military equipment does not help Putin’s plan.

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