Russia is reportedly moving military equipment to its border with Finland – hundreds of miles away from Ukraine. Support for NATO membership has grown in the Nordic nation since the invasion of Ukraine. Prime Minister Sanna Marin said the possible accession would be discussed “in the coming weeks”. But alarming new plans have now emerged, which appear to show a dramatic display of aggression by Russia. Military equipment, including coastal defense systems, has been spotted on the road from Russia to Helsinki. The Daily Mail reports that the missiles form the K-300P Bastion-P mobile coastal defense system, which is designed to “withdraw surface ships and even aircraft carrier battle groups”. Last night, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov warned that NATO expansion “would not bring stability” to Europe. To view this video, enable JavaScript and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Unverified video shows a series of missiles aimed at Finland (Image: Twitter) Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is in talks to join NATO (Image: Getty Images) His comments on the developments followed on Friday, when Finnish websites were the target of a cyber attack. A Russian government plane also briefly violated the country’s airspace on the same day. Finland, and its neighbor Sweden, have in the past avoided joining NATO in an effort not to provoke Russia. But the invasion of Ukraine has rekindled concerns about accession. If they were to join NATO, both countries would benefit from the alliance’s defense clause, which calls on all members to defend any ally that is attacked. Russian missiles found on road leading to Finland (Image: Twitter) Finland and Sweden accession test met with threats (Image: metro.co.uk) Alexander Stubb, the former Prime Minister of Finland, said last week: “Finns believe that if Putin can slaughter his sisters, brothers and cousins in Ukraine, as he is doing now, then there is nothing to stop him. does it in Finland. “We just do not want to be alone again,” he said, referring to the Soviet-Finnish Winter War. This conflict lasted from November 1939 to March 1940.
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Recent polls in Finland show that 84% of people consider Russia a “significant military threat”, an increase of 25% over the previous year. But speaking to Scandinavian journalists on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg promised that both Sweden and Finland “could easily join the alliance if they decide to apply”. He added: “They have worked together for many years, we know that they meet NATO standards in terms of interoperability, democratic control of the armed forces.” Contact our news team by emailing us at [email protected] For more stories like this, check out our news page.
