WordsByPhinn

The Ukraine and Russian war has been raging on since February of 2022 and has been a centerpiece of world headlines since its beginning. As many headlines about the complex conflict between the two nations circulate around America, closer to the conflict in the EU the issue is talked about much more. One nation in the EU has years of experience dealing with conflict with Russia as well, Finland, and they have many words of advice and has offered many helping hands to Ukraine.

Finland had its own war with Russia called the “Winter War” which took place from 1939-1940. Although the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed to end the conflict, Finland still had to give up territories but was able to maintain independence from Russia afterwards. However, with such independence came limitations as Finland being the much smaller nation had to appease Russia leading to things such as Finland agreeing to forego joining NATO to keep Russia as an ally. Although this strategy worked between the two countries for a while it eventually broke down as Finland was tired of having to go in circles to appease Russia and eventually did join NATO which prevented Russia from retaliating. This is very similar to the conflict currently raging through Eastern Europe since one of the prevailing reasons for Russia’s push into Ukraine was that the country as attempting to join NATO right on the world superpower’s doorstep. If Ukraine joined NATO Russia would have felt incredibly threatened having a coalition partially formed just for them being in the neighboring countries and around the world.

Despite all of the threats and complexities in that have formed throughout the last 3 years of fighting, Finland is still actively trying to help Ukraine prevail on top as much as possible. The help given includes the Finnish Ministry of Defense claims on their site they “strongly condemns Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and unequivocally supports Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, self-determination and territorial integrity” and in regards to the aid being sent that “The combined value of all defense materiel packages submitted so far is now over EUR 2.8 billion”. This shows Finland’s unwavering support towards helping history repeat itself and secure another member of NATO.

Finland doubles down on their support for Ukraine with Alexander Stubb, Finland’s President, saying that defensive agreements are being formed by according to The Guardian was “the coalition of the willing”. The reason behind these security guarantees is that they are another reason for Russia to avoid further international conflict without risking having to fight a war with most of the EU. Alongside these statements from the Finnish president, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, telling reporters from the Guardian that “26 nations had committed to be part of a “reassurance force” in Ukraine, with some of them committing to be present “on the ground, in the sea or in the air””. With all of these allies making waves with both physical aid sent to the war zone and both peace talks and potential security alliances being formed, there seems to be a way forming to ending the conflict. However, the U.S. has been a big question in the whole conflict with both the Finnish president and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, meeting with President Trump and bargaining potential peace agreements.

There seems to be an end possible in this conflict but if peace agreements don’t bring a resolution the other nations in the EU, notably Finland, have Ukraine’s back and are entirely willing to take military action if future events call for that necessity. Hopefully the war comes to a peaceful conflict but it is a two sided war and we can only pray that both sides stop losing civilians and start writing treaties.