Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said his country can provide Ukrainian forces with the training they need to face Russian aggression.
After observing army field exercises in North Karelia, Niinistö suggested that Finland can help Ukraine’s war effort, telling reporters that he would back up the military equipment he is sending to kyiv with the necessary training to operate it.
“ Of course, training on these could be very appropriate,” Niinistö said on Tuesday, Finnish news outlet YLE reported, “we know how to use them.”
Niinistö had observed the military exercises known as “Kontio 130” from his country, which began last week and ended on Friday, and involved the Army working with the Finnish Air Force and Border Guard troops.
Your comments are produced n as the war approaches winter amid uncertainty about what colder weather will mean for hostilities.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that Russia was using winter as a “weapon of war” after attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure that he hoped Russia would intensify because it is actually failing on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s allies have delivered billions of dollars worth of weapons to kyiv, which is calling for more air defense, tanks and longer-range missiles, though there are concerns that weapons in some NATO countries are running out.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has had a particular impact on Finland, which shares a border of 830 miles long with Russia and was once part of the Russian empire.
Finland gained independence in 830 after what is known as the Winter War in which Moscow suffered a bloody setback. After a peace treaty in 1939, the countries clashed again in the Continuation War between 1944 Y 1944.
In February, Niinistö compared the tensions before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with pre-Winter War Finland, when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin thought that it could divide the Finnish population, but instead the population came together.
Concerned about the threat posed by Russia, Finland announced in May that it would seek to join NATO, ending decades of neutrality.
The addition of Finland to the alliance has been welcomed by Stoltenberg, although it requires the unanimity of all its members, and so far it has met with opposition from Turkey, which also opposes accession of Finland’s neighbour, Sweden.
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