One good example of Soviet/Russian treachery & cunningness was the Soviet made puppet state called "Finnish Democratic Republic" in 1939.

It was established by Stalin upon outbreak of the Winter War & headed by Otto Wille Kuusinen to govern Finland after Soviet conquest. 🧵 The "Finnish Democratic Republic" was only recognised by the Soviet Union and nominally operated in Soviet-occupied areas of Finnish Karelia from the de facto capital of Terijoki.

The puppet state was also far from democratic, because its "leader" Kuusinen was communist.

When you stop & think about it...What is Russia without it's nuclear weapons?

Literally just a giant 3rd world country trying desperately to remain relevant after the collapse of USSR.

Let's dive in the reality of Russian state & mentality 🧵 Russia is a sick country that lives in three-phase cycles. Rise, Decline & Collapse.

This cycle repeats itself every century or so. Todays Russia is in a state of decline

Russia falls every time to the same diseases that torment it: Imperialism, megalomania & totalitarianism.

Finland has successfully tested its ability to run a war economy and has begun storing military equipment outside its national borders.

Finland recently checked on more than 1,000 agreements it has with private companies to produce equipment or provide services for times of war.

Fortifications are being built in strategic locations

https://twitter.com/TallbarFIN/status/1707616916620144674?t=iwKNNh2pOjOE6ynzpHi-vg&s=19

SOVIET OCCUPATION OF PORKKALA PENINSULA AFTER CONTINUATION WAR

For 12 years, Porkkala was a Soviet Naval Base Just 30 Kilometres West of the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

In this thread, we'll dive into this strange, surreal period in Finnish history 🧵 According to the Moscow Armistance signed in 1944 Finland was enforced to lease the Porkkala peninsula and its archipelago for the Soviet purposes.

The pact included a Soviet exclusive rental right at Porkkala for 50 years during 1944-1994.

Finland has a network of secret bunkers ready for war.

There are hundreds of such fortresses in Finland. They have been built over the decades, and more are being built every year.

#Finland #nato

Finnish Defence Forces do not build fortresses only in a chain along the eastern border, they are also being built inland in strategic locations that could be targeted by the enemy's long range capabilites.

Biggest battle in the history of Nordic countries took place in terrain between the villages of Tali & Ihantala on Karelian Isthmus, June 25 - July 9, 1944.

The major Finnish defensive victory was the key event that convinced USSR to abandon their plans ton annex Finland. 🧵 Few days before the start of the battle in Ihantala-area, the city of Vyborg fell faster than expected on June 20, 1944.

The Finns were able to stop the enemy's advance to the west side of the city at Tienhaara after blowing up the bridges crossing the waterway.

In November 1943, commanders of the Finnish 1st Division decided to form a strike force that could be used in toughest & most difficult situations on short notice.

Jaeger company of about 150 to 160 men was formed.

Lieutenant Lauri Törni was appointed as the company leader. 🧵 Unit consisted of soldiers with front-line experience & had plenty of light automatic weapons.

Core of the company were familiar men from Törni's old units.

Törni hand picked every member into his group of elite soldiers, which became a "operational fist" of the 1st Division.

Finnish companion in arms with Germans during World War II has become today's political pawn when Russia tries to paint Finland as an enemy.

Topic is undeniably controversial, to understand it you have to dive deeper into the causes and consequences. 🧵

#Finland #WW2 Finland entered the Continuation War from completely different starting points than Winter War.

Winter War was the result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany (23 August 1939.

Continuation War (1941-45) was a continuation of the Winter War.

Today, 26.11.23, 84 years have passed from Mainila shots that led to the Winter War

The Soviets staged an incident on the Finnish border, which the country used as an excuse to unilaterally dissolve the non-aggression pact between Finland and the Soviet Union

#Russia #Finland Four days later, the Soviet Union invaded Finland.

The Soviet Union claimed that in the border village of Mainila in Valkeasaari, four soldiers of the border forces who were training had been killed by artillery and mortar fire fired from the Finnish side.

What would happen if 🇷🇺 invaded 🇫🇮 today?

Interesting scenario.

I have made some research on this topic for some time & collected info to write a thread about it.

Im not a professional, if there are some experts reading this, feel free to correct.

Lets leave NATO out of it. Let's begin with statistics.

Invading 🇷🇺 force would have to be about 4 times stronger to be able to challenge 🇫🇮

🇫🇮 has a wartime strenght of 280k troops & 900k strong reserve. It means that 🇷🇺 would have to mobilize around million men to get the upper hand in numbers.

If Russia attempted a full scale invasion in Finland today, they would face even tougher conditions than they are currently facing in Ukraine today.

I'll tell you why in this short thread 🧵

#Finland #Russia #NATO As we have seen in Ukraine, russian military doctrine relies on massed armor, heavy artillery & sheer numbers. Troops are poorly led & strategies are almost non existent.

This would work even worse in Finland than it currently works in Ukraine for many reasons.

In Finnish media MTV's interview, President Niinistö commented on the heated discussion considering Hornet-jets.

Ukraine has been in contact with Finland regarding the fighter jets after the possible Hornet discussion came up.

#Hornets #Finland #Ukraine " I find it quite natural that Ukrainians are interested.

After all, there were reactions in the media where the situation was a bit exaggerated.

But if the title "fighter jet" is on display at all, then of course they will follow what is happening in Finland or elsewhere "

According to the information obtained by Finnish media Helsingin Sanomat (HS), Ukraine has submitted a request to Finland for trilateral discussions on fighter jets between Finland, Ukraine and the United States.

#Finland #Ukraine #Hornets The request came after Marin discussed with Zelensky the possibility of handing over the outgoing Hornet fighters.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin (sd) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv earlier in March.

Situation in #Bakhmut is pretty much the same as it has been for at least a week now.

Wagner is bashing it's head against the Ukrainian defences, achieving minor gains now & then, AFU conducts local counter attacks.

Street fighting continues in southern suburbs. AFU again conducted successful small scale counter attacks in the direction of Chasiv Yar to push the enemy further from the road, defence of Ivanivske is holding.

Frontline is very fluid on the open terrain south of Ivanivske.

FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER.

In this thread, I'll explain briefly how the Finnish conscription works.

From rookie to being an expert of his/her branch of service.

#Finland #FinnishArmy According to the Constitution of Finland every Finnish citizen is obligated to participate in national defence.

Every male Finnish citizen aged 18-60 is liable for military service, and women can apply for military service on a voluntary basis.

One notable change in otherwise repetitive report by AFU General Staff:

Assaults repelled in Klishchiivka.

This means that Ukrainian counter attacks on the southern side of Ivanivske have been successful 💪

Trying to find more info about the situation.

#Bakhmut

https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1633112671385010177?t=qwZJ9Zxd1RRstnBVQYd6AQ&s=19

The reinforcements that Ukraine sent to Bakhmut seem to have stabilized the situation, no proof of any new russian advances during the last 24 hours, russian "pincer" is still around 5km wide.

Strategic bridges over the Bakhmutovka river are blown up, attacks are being repelled Russians have not been able to physically cut the Chasiv Yar - Khromove road but it has reportedly been in the range of russian ATGM's for few days already. The bridge over the creek in the vicinity of Vosʹmyy pond was destroyed 2 days ago, not sure was it done by russians or AFU

Russians (and some pro Ukraine sources as well) are claiming that AFU has started to withdraw from #Bakhmut.

Ukrainian authorities, deputy mayor of Bakhmut for example deny this & say that Ukrainians are still fighting for Bakhmut.

Fog of war is dense.

#UkraineRussianWar Mainly pro russian sources are sharing pictures & video of allegedly ukrainian soldiers allegedly retreating from Bakhmut.

We should not base our view of the situation on these.

After hearing the reports of new possible major offensive and 200 000 fresh russian troops I think its time to admit that I was wrong.

I thought in fall 2022, when we witnessed the succesful ukrainian counteroffensives, that Russia was losing the war and thats it. But the reality is that Russia CAN still win this war if the West hesitates too much.

That is my fear, when I hear that some of the leaders still speak about the danger of escalation.

Russias victory in Ukraine would be a disaster to us all, not just Ukraine.

New photos show that russians completely destroyed Koivisto's (Primorsk) Finnish hero's cemetery.

All the memorials and nameplates are gone, Finland didn't even receive any kind of notification about this. 🤬

#RussiaIsATerroristState
#RussiaIsANaziState The Koivisto hero's cemetery dispute may be just the beginning of a wider threat of demolition of Finnish grave monuments in Russia. This is evident from the written responses from Moscow.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg estimated on Tuesday in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, that Russia intends to mobilize as many as 200,000 new soldiers to Ukraine.

In his view, President Vladimir Putin does not seem to be preparing for peace, but the opposite. "We see them preparing for ever greater warfare; that they are mobilizing more and more soldiers, more than 200,000 men and potentially even more"