If NATO bases appear in Finland, Russia will take military measures

Russia believes that Finland will lose its sovereignty if it lets the United States use its territory for army bases.

Moscow is monitoring reports of such plans and is ready to "take military, technical and other retaliatory measures” should the situation escalate, Maria Zakharova, an official spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said, TASS reports.

According to Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, Helsinki and Washington are discussing an agreement on defence cooperation between the two countries. If implemented, the US military will be able to use Finnish land and bases to keep military equipment and conduct exercises there.

There are no specific details about the agreement yet, but there is no talk of nuclear weapons in the document.

In early April, Finland became the 31st member of the defense bloc. Finland submitted the application after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.

The Russian embassy in Helsinki earlier said that bilateral relations with Finland were practically ruined against the backdrop of Finland's entry into NATO. Finland officially became a NATO member on April 4.