Finland will send another shipment of weapons to Ukraine, its prime minister said on Thursday, three weeks after the Nordic country broke with longstanding policy to deliver arms.
The shipment “includes weapons assistance to Ukraine,” Sanna Marin told reporters in Brussels as EU heads of state met to discuss further sanctions against Russia.
“We are not revealing the details so that we can ensure the delivery arrives safely in Ukraine,” Marin said, adding: “We have to be prepared to support Ukraine for as long as the war goes on.”
Four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland broke with its long-held principle of not supplying arms to war zones and announced that it would send anti-tank weapons, assault rifles, and ammunition to Kyiv.
Several countries including Sweden, the UK and Germany have this week announced new shipments to Ukraine, following pleas by President Volodymyr Zelensky for the EU and NATO to increase its military assistance.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off alarm bells in Finland, which was part of the Russian empire for more than 100 years, fought two wars with Moscow over the last century, and shares a 1,340 km (830 mile) land border with Russia.
Finland was forced by the Kremlin into remaining outside any western defense cooperation during the Cold War, and since then has remained militarily non-aligned, although it joined the European Union in 1995.
But Russia’s assault on Ukraine has seen Finnish public support for joining NATO rise above 50 percent for the first time, according to a series of recent polls.
