Russia’s announcement it had deployed nuclear-capable missile systems to its frontier with Finland met with a dismissive response from a general in the new NATO member.
Kremlin-friendly newspaper Izvestia reported last week that the Russian defense ministry had formed a separate missile brigade in the Russian republic of Karelia with Iskander-M systems, which can launch conventional and nuclear missiles.
Russia has called Finland’s decision to join NATO after decades of neutrality provocative, and that was followed by Sweden’s accession last month. The Iskanders are seen as central to the presence in Karelia of Russia’s newly formed Leningrad Military District, which was created in response to Helsinki joining NATO.
Oleksii Samsonov/Getty Images
But the prospect of Iskanders by the border got short shrift from retired Major General Harri Ohra-aho, a former director of the Finnish military intelligence agency.
“If this comes true, it won’t change anything,” he wrote on X. “In any case, one should defend against Iskander missiles,” he said, referring to how such missiles already are deployed south of St. Petersburg.
“Of course, it’s none of my business, but operationally it seems absurd to bring missile systems with such a long range closer to our border, they make easy targets for us,” he added, according to a translation.
Jos tämä aikaa myöten toteutuu, se ei muuta mitään Suomessa. Iskander-ohjuksia vastaan pitäisi joka tapauksessa puolustautua (aikaisempi lähin tukikohta ennen Ukrainan sotaa on ollut Pietarin eteläpuolella Ylä-Laukaassa). https://t.co/JKmjNMgFyO
— Harri Ohra-aho (@Ohra_aho) April 23, 2024
Major General Harri Ohra-Aho on Russia’s decision to move ballistic missiles closer to the Finnish border
“Of course, it’s none of my business, but operationally it seems absurd to bring missile systems with such a long range closer to our border, they make easy targets for us” pic.twitter.com/HmcU1RjlD4
— Tomi 🇺🇦🇫🇮 (@TallbarFIN) April 24, 2024
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
The 9K720 Iskander-M, which has the NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone, is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system that can carry nuclear warheads weighing up to 1,500 pounds. Its missiles can reach an altitude of more than 30 miles and travel at up to seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7).
The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) said it was Moscow’s main weapon when threatening Europe. In 2017, during exercise Zapad, a Iskander-M missile vehicle appeared in the Pechenga valley, less than 10 miles from the border with Norway.
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said in August 2022 that they gave Russia “significant capability” and they had been used in tactical-operation strikes in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Finland shares a border of more than 830 miles with Russia, which has been closed by Helsinki since Russia’s FSB directed migrants to enter Finland in what Finnish authorities dubbed a hybrid operation.
Separately, in light of Moscow’s cyberattacks against Ukraine and its digital infrastructure, Wednesday saw the start of NATO’s largest cyber defense exercise, Locked Shields in Tallinn, Estonia.
President Joe Biden, the leaders of other NATO countries and analysts have warned that following his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin could look to attack countries in the alliance, a notion that the Russian president has rejected.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.