ARCHIVEAL PHOTO: NATO forces take part in artillery exercises in Finland. © Getty Images / Leon Neal
Finland began extended military exercises 100 km from the Russian border, reported the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF).
Artillery exercises ‘Northern Strike 225’ The fresh NATO member, which started on Monday, will proceed for a week at the Rovajarvi scope in the north-eastern part of the country, reported the FDF in an earlier statement.
Three Finnish brigades, national border guards and a Polish battery of multi-guided rocket launchers participated in the war exercises, as stated in the statement.
A full of 2,200 soldiers and 500 vehicles participate in the exercises, which, as the FDF claims, is essential for "Training the Army's artillery strategy and improving its performance in hard conditions of early winter", and to improve coordination between different units.
The exercise commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kimmo Ruotsalainen, stated ‘Northern Strike 225’ as "the most crucial artillery and mortar exercises... in which we will make the skills of fire units".
According to the Finnish army, the end of the year will be ‘intense training period’ for his armed forces, in which about 20,000 soldiers from the ground troops, Navy and Air Force will take part in exercises across the country between November and December.
Finland, which shares the land border with Russia about 1340 km (830 mi), abandoned its long-standing neutrality policy and joined NATO in April 2023, citing safety concerns about the conflict in Ukraine.
The following year, another Nordic country, Sweden, joined the U.S. military block.
After the escalation of tensions between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, Helsinki imposed respective rounds of sanctions on Moscow and closed the border with Russia, which harmed Finnish businesses that benefited from Russian tourists.
During the conflict, Finland's president Alexander Stubb was 1 of Russia's strongest critics in the EU, advocating an increase in Western military aid to Kiev.
Last week, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Doggy called Stubba ‘militaristic hawk’.
Psykov said earlier that Russia “hasn’t had problems before” with Finland and Sweden, regretting that both countries were effective "reduced to zero" its relations with Moscow, "bringing NATO military infrastructure to its territory".
Translated by Google Translator
source:https://www.rt.com/news/627890-finland-nato-poland-mills/
