Finland 'preparing for worst' as russia building up military presence near border - The Guardian

Finland has said it is monitoring russia's manoeuvres near its border and is "preparing for the worst", as this is its job as part of the NATO alliance. The country expects russia to continue building up its troops along its shared border after the war in Ukraine ends.

This is reported by The Guardian.

Thus, Major General Sami Nurmi, the head of strategy of the Finnish defence forces, said that the military is "very closely" monitoring moscow's manoeuvres and that their job as part of the NATO alliance is to "prepare for the worst".

Also on May 21, the Finnish Border Guard announced that it had completed the first 35 km of a planned 200 km fence on its eastern border with russia, which has been closed for more than a year after Helsinki accused moscow of directing asylum seekers to Finland as part of a “hybrid operation.” The fence also uses cameras and sensors to distinguish between people and animals crossing the border.

Satellite images published by the New York Times show the expansion of military infrastructure near the Finnish border, including rows of tents, military equipment, repairs to fighter jet shelters and construction on a previously unused helicopter base.

“They are structures and we are seeing moderate preparations when it comes to building infrastructure close to our borders, meaning that they will, once the war in Ukraine hopefully ends, start to bring back the forces that have been fighting in Ukraine, especially land forces,” Nurmi said.

While this was not a surprise, as Finland joined NATO at a record pace in 2023 after russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Nurmi said they are “following the preparations very closely.”

“They are doing it in phases. I would say it is still moderate numbers. It’s not big construction, but in certain places building new infrastructure and preparing, bringing new equipment in. You also have to evaluate whether they are preparing to send more troops to Ukraine or preparing to build up their forces close to our border. But I guess they are doing both,” he continued.

Responding to russia's shift in activity, Donald Trump told reporters on May 20 that he was " not worried about it at all," adding that Finland and Norway were “going to be very safe”.

Supporting the president's view, Nurmi said that "there is no immediate military threat towards Finland or Nato from this direction."

He added, "What happened right after the Ukrainian attack was we applied for Nato membership and then when we were accepted Russia announced they would start to change their military posture across the border."

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, during a briefing, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a number of European leaders, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb, participated in the conversation following Donald Trump's call to vladimir putin on May 19.

On May 21, Stubb said that talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine could take place next week in the Vatican, and the situation is currently developing very well.

Earlier, the Finnish parliament unanimously supported the country's government's proposal to prohibit citizens of the aggressor country, russia, from purchasing real estate.

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