Today, Finland has announced its intention to join NATO, with Sweden likely to follow soon after, diplomats said officially. This is because the Atlantic military alliance and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reshape European security.

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NATO allies expect Sweden and Finland to be granted membership quickly; five diplomats are paving the way for increased troop presence in the Nordic region during the one-year ratification period.

“In the wider Nordic region, Norway, Denmark, and the three Baltic states are already NATO members, and the addition of Finland and Sweden would likely anger Moscow,” said NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has mentioned quoted the issue as being a reason for his actions in Ukraine that has also expressed a desire to join the western alliance eventually.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining NATO, threatening “serious military and political consequences”.

Asked on Wednesday if Finland would provoke Russia by joining NATO, President Sauli Niinisto said Putin would be to blame. “My response would be that you caused this. Look at the mirror,” Niinisto said.
Ukraine said it had pushed back Russian forces in the east and shut gas flows on a route through Russian-held territory on the frontlines. It has raised the spectre of an energy crisis in Europe.

Ukraine’s armed forces’ general staff said it had recaptured Pytomnyk, a village on the main highway north of the second-largest city of Kharkiv, about halfway to the Russian border.
The advance appears to be the fastest that Ukraine has mounted since it drove Russian troops away from the capital Kyiv and out of northern Ukraine.