Finland has been preparing for decades for Russian attack and will put up stiff resistance should one occur.

This was stated by the Commander of the Finnish Defense Forces, General Timo Kivinen, in an interview with Reuters.

“Ukraine has been a tough bite to chew (for Russia) and so would Finland,” the Commander of the Finnish Defense Forces said.

He noted that since the Second World War, the country had been systematically developing military defence in order to resist the enemy, which uses massive firepower, armoured forces and also air forces.

He also noted that Finnish troops, like Ukrainian ones, have a high motivation to fight, which ensures their superiority.

“The most important line of defence is between one’s ears, as the war in Ukraine proves at the moment. We have been systematically developing our military defence precisely for this type of warfare that is being waged there (in Ukraine), with a massive use of firepower, armoured forces and also air forces,” Kivinen said in an interview.

The Commander of the Finnish Defense Forces welcomed Finland’s decision to apply for NATO membership.

The Finnish Defense Forces have a wartime troop strength of some 280,000 with 870,000 trained as reservists.

As previously reported, at the end of June, a summit of NATO members in Madrid will review the application of Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance. They decided to apply against the background of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

On June 10, Finland approved additional military assistance to Ukraine. For security reasons neither the specific list of items to be included in the package, nor the equipment delivery schedule are being disclosed.

It is emphasized that Finland’s additional military-technical assistance package was compiled considering the current needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the resource capacity of their own Defense Forces.