Russia warns Poland against sending troops to Finland border

Moscow would see any move by Finland to permit a “concentration” of troops on its border with Russia as a threat, the Kremlin stated on Wednesday in response to Poland’s offer to provide military advisors to assist Helsinki in policing the boundary. In response to “an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border,” Jacek Siewiera, the director of the Polish National Security Bureau, announced late on Tuesday on social media platform X that Poland would be sending military advisers to Finland, a NATO ally. On Wednesday, Finland declared that it was not aware of the Polish proposal. In an attempt to stop an exceptionally high number of asylum seekers, Helsinki has blocked its whole 1,340 km border with Russia for two weeks. Helsinki claims this is the result of a “hybrid attack” planned by Moscow, a claim the Kremlin disputes. During a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to a question concerning the Polish offer to Finland by saying, “This is an absolutely redundant measure to ensure border security because there is no threat there.” “The Finns must be clearly aware that this will pose a threat to us - an increase in the concentration of military units on our borders.” According to Peskov, any planned deployment would be unwarranted and unjustified. There is no proposal to send Polish military advisers to Finland’s eastern border, according to the interior ministry and the country’s border guard. Requests for comment were not immediately answered by Finland’s defence forces, foreign ministry, or ministry of defence. According to a statement from Niinisto’s office to Reuters, military cooperation on Finland’s border with Russia was not discussed at last week’s meetings between Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Warsaw. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, Finland ended decades of military non-alignment earlier this year, which incensed Russia. (With agency inputs)