NATO drills on Finland’s border ‘increase the risk of military incidents’, Russia warns as alliance prepares for Nordic wargames

NATO exercises set to take place near the Russian border in Finland “increase the risk of military incidents”, Moscow has warned as the alliance prepares for large-scale war games in the Nordic country.

“NATO military exercises near the Russian borders are provocative in nature,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding: “Their task is to exert military pressure on the Russian Federation through a show of force.” “.

Finland first applied for NATO membership as it sought to bolster its security situation vis-à-vis its neighbor following the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces in 2022.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said yesterday that joining the alliance a year ago has transformed his country into a “frontline state” as it has doubled the military bloc’s border with Russia. Finland will organize exercises starting April 26.

In recent months, Member States, including the UK, have been conducting war games across northern and eastern Europe, with tens of thousands of troops taking part in Steadfast Defender, NATO’s largest exercise in decades.

While it has not explicitly named Russia as its potential enemy, the Steadfast Defender 24 exercise is testing and refining the alliance’s plans to bolster European defenses against a “near-peer adversary.”

It has been what is described as NATO’s “largest exercise since the Cold War”, with around 20,000 British troops involved and 90,000 soldiers from the alliance’s 32 members.

The training exercise in Finland has been named Exercise Arrow, and the Finnish Defense Ministry said in a statement that “a significant number of soldiers from the alliance nations will participate.”

Finland, which became NATO’s 31st member in April 2023, has a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border with Russia that runs mainly through thick forests in the south and rugged landscapes in the northern Arctic.

President Stubb was visiting neighboring Sweden, which joined NATO last month, and spoke at a joint press conference in Stockholm with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

For decades, the two countries adopted a policy of neutrality, refusing to take sides in wars or join any military alliance, but that changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

‘Therefore, Sweden and Finland not only share a common history. We largely share a common future,” Kristersson said at the press conference. His country became NATO’s 32nd member in March.

‘Finland and Sweden play a key role in promoting peace. It sounds paradoxical, but that is precisely why we want a strong army and that is why we joined NATO,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Stubb, who was elected president of the Nordic country in February, said joining NATO “was the final step in embracing the Western community of values” for both countries. The two countries joined the European Union in 1995.

The two states’ membership in NATO will have increased pressure on the Kremlin as the alliance moves closer to Russia’s border and increases its influence in the region.

Its accession to the alliance added the final piece to the puzzle around the coasts of the Baltic Sea, a crucial maritime gateway for Russia, making it easier for NATO to exercise control and reinforce its vulnerable Baltic States.

“If you look at a map, geographically the Baltic Sea is becoming a NATO lake, yes,” Minna Alander, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said earlier this year. “But there is still work to do for NATO.”

As the threat from Russia continues to loom, Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today committed to closer defense cooperation, with both leaders saying Europe must come together to support Ukraine for as long as necessary.

The Prime Minister hailed closer ties with Germany a day after announcing he would increase defense spending to 2.5 percent of annual GDP by 2030, in what he said was a challenge for other European countries to follow suit.

It comes as a fleet of nine British Army Apache attack helicopters heads to Finland to join the training mission there.

The Apaches, valued at £40m each, will fly strike missions in support of the Finnish military’s large-scale training, before heading to Estonia for an exercise where they will be joined by more British aircraft.

Four RAF Wildcat reconnaissance helicopters and two Chinook support helicopters, which took off alongside the Apaches on Wednesday morning from Wattisham air station in Suffolk, will head to Estonia and remain there longer.

The exercise in Estonia, with all three types of helicopters, is called Exercise Swift Response.

The helicopters will fly and fight together in the Estonia exercise under the command of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, the British Army’s global response force.

British airborne forces are training with their Estonian, Polish and American counterparts in this latest exercise to practice entrenching themselves against armed opposition.

In air assault operations, the Chinooks will lift troops and equipment, and the Wildcats’ surveillance team will work with the Apaches’ advanced array of sights and sensors to find and engage targets on the battlefield.

Around 130 vehicles, from tankers to Land Rovers, travel by road and rail to the Baltic countries, and most of the 500 aircrew, engineers and ground staff who operate the helicopters fly away.

Lt. Col. Dave Lambert, 4th Regiment Army Air Corps battle group commander, said, “Exercise Steadfast Defender is NATO’s largest exercise since the Cold War.”

He said it is “very easy to focus on events in Ukraine” but that “our role within NATO is to be prepared for all threats.”

Lieutenant Colonel Lambert said it will be the first time the new AH-64E Apache has been deployed on overseas operations for the British Army, adding that he was “really looking forward to seeing what it is capable of”.

He continued: ‘This is one of the largest overseas helicopter deployments we have undertaken outside of Iraq and Afghanistan, and will almost certainly be the largest most of our people will have done.

‘It provides a powerful contribution to support NATO training on Steadfast Defender.

‘Led by the next-generation AH-64E Apache, the capabilities we deliver are battle-winning and fully contribute to the combined arms battle.

“The importance of what we are doing is matched by the demanding nature of the deployment: we are deploying helicopters and everything we need to operate them across Europe, to build relationships with our allies, understand their capabilities and procedures, to then plan and carry out carry out missions together.’

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said: ‘National security is the Government’s first duty, which is why we have the capabilities and international partnerships to protect the UK from both current and future threats.

‘In a more dangerous world, this deployment demonstrates that the UK is demonstrating once again how we can improve NATO’s ability to meet the challenge of modern threats.

“The new state-of-the-art Apache helicopters will join 20,000 British soldiers, sailors and airmen in Exercise Steadfast Defender, sending an unequivocal message of our commitment to the alliance.”

The helicopters were due to depart on Tuesday, but their departure was postponed one day to Wednesday due to poor weather conditions.