Ukraine's chances of becoming a NATO member in the short-term are not helped by Finland joining the alliance, according to experts. On Tuesday, Finland became the 31st member of NATO, with Sweden expected to shortly follow suit. "I am deeply proud to welcome Finland as a full-fledged member of our alliance and I look forward to also welcoming Sweden as soon as possible," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. Helsinki applied for NATO membership in May 2022, which the Finnish government said would "strengthen security in the changed security environment."...

HAMBURG – When Finland cleared the last hurdle for NATO membership last week, major Western newspapers buried the story. Yet Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto justly celebrated “these historic days” – the end of 75 years of neutrality. As of this week, Finland is formally in, and Sweden, another eternal neutral, will soon follow, once Turkey stops blocking its membership. Why would these two countries throng into an alliance that French President Emmanuel Macron diagnosed as being “brain dead” only four years ago, and which former US President Donald Trump saw...

Ukraine heartily congratulated Finland on its accession to NATO, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Helsinki now had a "reliable guarantee of safety — a collective guarantee." But as Finland's flag was hoisted at NATO's headquarters in Brussels Tuesday, officially marking its entry as the 31st member of the Western military alliance, there were bound to be a bittersweet feelings in Kyiv. Ukraine yearns for NATO membership, having long-aspired to join the alliance and for it to feel the security that members enjoy as a result of the collective defense pact....

BRUSSELS (AP) — As Finland joined NATO this week, casting aside a history of military nonalignment, a small but noisy group of Ukraine supporters outside the security fence at the alliance’s headquarters used a loudspeaker system to chant “Ukraine needs NATO,” “Ukraine in NATO,” and “Ukraine needs fighter jets.” Russia’s war on Ukraine has driven Finland into NATO’s ranks to benefit from its security guarantee that an attack on any one of the now-31 member countries will be met with a response from them all. Sweden, Bosnia, Georgia and —...

What: According to the Associated Press, Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Who: Lisa Baglione, PhD, is a professor of political science at Saint Joseph's University. She is an expert in Russian politics, with decades of research dating back to the Soviet Union. Dr. Baglione is available for interviews on the topic of Finland joining NATO and what this means for Russia's war with...

BRUSSELS (AFP) — Finland’s blue-and-white Nordic cross flag was hoisted outside NATO headquarters on Tuesday as it became the 31st member of the alliance, in the first step of a historic realignment of Europe’s defences sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Western officials will now turn up the pressure on their awkward allies Hungary and Turkey to lift their block on Sweden, so it can also join. Already Helsinki’s strategic shift — which ended decades of military non-alignment — has doubled the length of the US-led alliance’s land border with...

Finland's ascension into NATO is a blow to Russia, which had sought to fracture the alliance through its invasion of Ukraine. Both Finland and Sweden sought entry into NATO last year, both of which had been neutral, amid the first months of Russia's war in Ukraine. Finland had adopted a position of neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II, though the country’s ascension into the alliance this week doubled NATO’s border with Russia, angering the Kremlin. BIDEN WELCOMES FINLAND INTO NATO AND CALLS FOR SWEDEN'S ADMISSION...

Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Finland had adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II, but its leaders signaled they wanted to join NATO just months after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through its neighbors. “The era of nonalignment in our history...