Finland leaders announce support for Nato membership, Russia warns of consequences
India Today
Russia has warned Finland it would face consequences as it seeks to apply for NATO membership "without delay".
Finland’s leaders Thursday came out in favour of applying to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and Sweden could do the same within days, in a historic realignment on the continent more than two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbours.
The Kremlin reacted by warning it will be forced to take retaliatory “military-technical” steps.
On the ground, meanwhile, Russian forces pounded areas in central, northern and eastern Ukraine, including the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, as part of its offensive to take the industrial Donbas region, while Ukraine recaptured some towns and villages in the northeast.
Read: Russia's hypersonic missiles leave Ukraine's Odesa in shambles | Pics
The first war-crimes trial of a Russian soldier since the start of the conflict is set to open Friday in Kyiv. A 21-year-old captured member of a tank unit is accused of shooting to death a civilian on a bicycle during the opening week of the war.
Finland’s president and prime minister announced that the Nordic country should apply right away for membership in NATO, the military defense pact founded in part to counter the Soviet Union.
“You (Russia) caused this. Look in the mirror,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said this week.
