Russia threatens Finland: “You will be the first to suffer”

A senior Russian diplomat said that such “horror stories” are primarily based on the geographical proximity of Finland, which shares a border with Russia.

In an interview with journalists of the Russian state media “RIA Novosti”, he expressed the opinion that Finland’s membership in NATO this year has turned Helsinki, which has maintained a neutral status for decades, into a capital hostile to Moscow.

“Finland lived peacefully and quietly and suddenly found itself between Russia and NATO as a member of this alliance. But since they are our neighbors, God forbid, if there is any escalation, they will be the first to suffer,” stated M. Uljanov.

The howitzer will deploy

Russia will soon deploy its newest howitzers to the Northern Military District, which borders Finland and Norway, the head of the state-owned Rostech Corporation, Sergei Chemezov, said on Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters news agency.

According to him, tests of the new Koalicija-SV self-propelled artillery systems have been completed, and their mass production has already begun. S. Čemezov noted that the first trial batch will be delivered by 2023. the end

“I think they will appear there (in the Northern Military District) in the near future, because howitzers of this class are needed to give an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of range,” explained the head of the corporation.

in 2021 Russian President Vladimir Putin changed the status of Russia’s Northern Fleet, whose area of ​​responsibility was mainly the Russian Arctic, to the Northern Military District, which includes the Murmansk region, which borders Finland and Norway.

Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. in February Moscow accused the “collective West” of waging a proxy war with Russia and said Moscow would build up forces on its western borders following Finland joins NATO.

These howitzers, with a range of up to 70 km, are equipped with a 152 mm 2A88 cannon with a rate of fire of more than 10 rounds per minute, as well as an automated firing system.