The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will carry out several artillery exercises in the Arctic this month, which has been considered by many as a wake-up call to Russia. It is estimated that some 3,600 soldiers will participate, coming from United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden and other NATO members.
This is one of the largest exercises carried out by the international organization in Europe and will include other exercises in which the participation of other countries such as Estonia, Poland, Romania and Germany. It is also one of the first large-scale demonstrations by Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, since it joined the alliance last year.
For Joel Linnainmaki, researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, these exercises can be interpreted as part of a warning to Russia. “These NATO exercises increasingly aim to show other countries, and in this case especially Russia, of course, that the alliance is united and capable of defending its members,” he defended.
Janne Makitalo, the colonel and director of the exercise in Finland, called ‘Dynamic Front 25’, explained that the main objective is train the agency’s troops and demonstrate their interoperability in extreme conditions of the Arctic after the entry of Sweden, Finland and Norway into NATO. “Of course, this sends a message that we can train together and we are developing our assets,” he told reporters.
“Artillery is basically the king and queen of the battlefield, as we have seen in the combat experience in Ukraine,” added the colonel, who ruled out that the exercise could act as a provocation for Moscow. ““This is not about any kind of show of force,” he stressed.
Strengthening NATO’s northern flank
For Makitalo, Finland’s entry into NATO meant “280,000 soldiers for NATO’s northern flank.” In addition, the place chosen to carry out the artillery exercises has some quite harsh weather conditionswith extreme temperatures that during winter can fall below 20º Celsius and layers of ice and snow.
“This is a unique place to train, because it is one of the few places where you can train things on a real scale,” detailed Lieutenant Antti-Matti Puisto, leader of the firing platoon of the Finnish Karelian brigade. “The objective is to put into practice our skills as artillerymen and mountaineers working in a very cold environment,” Captain Romain, commander of the French unit of the Ecrins battery of the 93rd Mountain Artillery Regiment, argued to AFP.
“We will also work on interoperability with our allies, to carry out artillery fire in coherence with our NATO allies,” he added to AFP. “We are making history and it is really nice to see different nations in Finland”concluded recruit Olli Myllymaki.
