Russia establishes new military unit in response to NATO expansion.
General Shoigu announced that Russia will establish 12 new military units in the West in response to NATO's planned admission of two Nordic countries.
"Finland and Sweden have submitted applications."I want to join NATO."Tensions continue to rise in the area under the responsibility of the Western Military District," said General Sergey Shoigu, Russia's Defense Minister, at a meeting on May 20. "By the end of the year, the Western Military District will have established 12 military units."
General Shoigu said the Russian military expects to receive more than 2,000 units of equipment and weapons, but did not release details. He noted that the strategic situation in the West is characterized by increasing military threats near Russia's borders.
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| Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Photo: Reuters |
"Over the past eight years, flights by US strategic bombers in Europe have increased fifteenfold. US warships carrying guided missiles have systematically entered the Baltic Sea," General Shoigu said.
General Shoigu provided this information after Sweden and Finland submitted their applications for membership to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on May 18, ending the neutrality policy that the two countries had maintained for a long time.
Mr. Stoltenberg has repeatedly affirmed 2The Nordic country will be joined by NATO.They were welcomed with "open arms," but the immediate obstacle was opposition from Türkiye, a member state of the bloc.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 16 did not criticize Finland and Sweden for joining NATO, but warned that expanding military infrastructure on the territory of these two countries would trigger a response from Moscow. "Specific actions will be based on the threat they pose to Russia," Putin said.
In April, Russian Federal Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow would be forced to restore the military balance by strengthening its defenses in the Baltic region, including deploying nuclear weapons there, if Stockholm and Helsinki joined NATO.
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| 7 Decades of NATO's Eastward Expansion in Europe. Graphic: Statista |
Finland shares a border of over 1,300 km with Russia. They became a neutral country through a Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet Union in 1948, with the hope of preventing a recurrence of the 1939 Finnish-Soviet War, which claimed the lives of over 80,000 Finnish soldiers.
Throughout the Cold War, the Nordic nation maintained a non-aligned stance, despite the influence of both blocs led by the Soviet Union and the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland gradually shifted its foreign policy focus towards the West, marked by its decision to join the EU in 1995.
Sweden also chose a similar path after the end of the Cold War, joining the EU in 1995 and strengthening cooperation with NATO. Sweden has avoided joining any military alliance for over 200 years.
