Finland NATO: How Finland will strengthen NATO's border with Russia

sort of like guts treat perseverance and stubbornness even though it seems from the first hour of the war that you are going to lose this battle no matter how bad it's going you won't give up in any circumstances it's not about war and battle it's about living in finland hard winters lots of suffering in the finnish history and the whole nation has held it together and maybe sisu is the explanation for that [Applause] in the depths of a pine forest an hour's drive from helsinki some 100 finnish army reservists are gearing up for a day of shooting it's part hobby part training and part subtle signal to finland's potential enemies the message think twice once you go to helsinki and you go to buy a pack of cigarettes from arkyoski or a grocery store the person selling those to cigarettes to you he knows how to shoot with bazooka so we are basically almost all male trained and our neighbors know this they are very aware that this country is able to provide 900 000 people with guns the border in a matter of days or weeks so they know it i think nowadays after this ukraine innovation people are people are a bit scared i would say that makes well it makes all these kind of a you know shooting sports for example it's it's kind of a this is a good time to be doing this kind of activities also to show that we are having quite a good capabilities and we have very uh motivated reservists in this country you see nascar is a 32 year old i.t strategy consultant he's also a member of finland's reservist army and a crack shot with his customized ar-15 rifle rifle with 16 barrel nordic components ar very reliable good ar rifle and i'm also having a leopard scope on it uh this is a rifle stage so you're shooting this stage with the rifle uh usually people are using a ar rifle some are using 7.62 calibers as well but why most of the rifles are 0.223 ars like most men in finland yusi has served in the military it wasn't a choice but he enjoyed it nonetheless [Music] we have a very long tradition and history of conscription in finland we have had we have basically always had the conscription so it is a tradition that goes across generations i would say they are all the generations who have done the same and we also know generations to come will also have the same and there is a very huge importance for all of us that we are able to maintain the superintendent of our country i was very surprised when i started doing this how physical it gets and you're running you are getting your body to very strange uh positions and so on so it is actually and there is always a time pressure in here we have two vehicle targets that simulate uh armored personal carriers which are uh crown purple targets about the size of uh big tires of armored vehicles so we simulate uh doing a mobility kill on an armored personal career by shooting the tires many times right most shooting position is some kind of a bunker because it has a small viewport from where the company can shoot it requires a difficult shooting position targets are small about the size of a man's head at various distances and it has a contrast between a very easy target which is the tyre of the armored vehicle and then a combatant who is taking cover and only the head is visible [Music] geography is a challenge for us we have always been kind of between the east and the west we used to have a very good relation with russia as well it was something we were kind of proud of also that we are able to cooperate but now after this full-blown war of ukraine it has made us also to feel very insecure in finland and that's why we have received a tremendous amount of new new people participating in different service to organizations and so on so i would answer that geography is it poses us some some challenges that perhaps british people for example cannot uh understand us such easily unbelievable that was very good finland is one of the few countries in europe which still operates a policy of mandatory military service for all men conscription means the small nordic country of just 5.5 million people can muster one of the largest reserve armies in the world these citizen soldiers are often members of reservist organizations which run voluntary training events like this shooting competition since vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine finns have been flocking to attend refresher courses in everything from shooting to anti-tank techniques and basic survival skills at the beginning of this year our club was roughly 1000 members and now it's close to 1450. so 450 more i have talked with them and the honest answer from there is that they join us because of the security issue and the ukraine aunty kittenin is chairman of the vanta reservists club now a salesman he did his mandatory service between 1997 and 1998. since then he's made sure to stay battle ready it's healthy to know that you can shoot the 40 centimeters target up to 500 meter it's neat but still like swimming if you have drop from the boat you need to know how to swim back to the boat i wish that everybody know how to shoot could be useful skill one day if you need to shoot shoot you need to talk talk it's better to be samurai in the garden than a garden in the war defending our countries really kind of deep-rooted in our values it is our duty and also that it is totally normal to think about what happens if i need to defend my country yari laina is ceo of military and outdoor supply company varus deleka since putin launched his war in ukraine he's seen demand skyrocket in his stores after the the attack it's been crazy some of the categories like first aid combat gear all the field gear they have grown hundreds of percentages compared to a same period of time last year so yeah it kind of exploded one item which has been kind of really popular like past few months has been the the basic plate carrier uh the the west base where you can put the the protective plates in in and then have the the pouches for uh for a magazine and then on the sides you can attach for example pouches for turning tourniquet and first aid kit and radio and so forth so this has been a top seller and in conjunction with we said we have sold a lot of protective plates uh for with the different uh protection levels that particular uh plate one is the the rating for that which is the uh old uh the nato 762 caliber so pretty powerful uh bullet would this particular plate would uh stop so here we have a one example on the mannequin like basic uh combat clothing combat boots load bearing belt you could mount the uh pouches and and the pistol there and then basic load bearing was the trick where you can carry a few magazines maybe the the first aid kit another like popular item what we're selling a lot is the the helmets uh protects from shrapnel and handgun projectiles you can mount the night vision there you can have your communications and ear protection many of the items uh especially in finland uh are used by uh reservists or active duty soldiers even though the government is offering of course they are issuing you a kit but many of the reservists and active duty personnel are upgrading their kit to be more effective in in their uh line of duty and that that's a big part of our our business uh what we do not all the items are being bought by the finish for the finish though some are being sent to ukraine to be used on the front line some are being bought by other europeans in particular from people in sweden and germany where sales are up 40 percent on last year it's no news for at least for a maturity of the finns that russia might be aggressive towards their neighboring countries i think people have been like okay that was a wake-up call that maybe now i need to get in a shape and make sure that i have the right gear and i have the right training if something happens but it's pretty hard to be happy about the sales increase due to the the russian second attack to uh ukraine i'm really angry about it ukraine is is a sovereign country they they just want to live their life they are not bothering russians or anyone else so i i don't see any justification for that type of violence and i just hope that the russian forces would be prevented back to moscow and we could isolate the russia totally from the world and maybe they could kind of apply world membership after 2 000 years but yeah that's how i feel i think finland is really well prepared and and the willingness to protect this country is really high so i think if there would be a similar kind of development in in things it would be really bad for russian troops they will be probably wiped out the key weapon system of the finnish defense is the willingness to defend our own country [Applause] if you want peace you have to prepare for war [Music] on helsinki's island military base of santa gemina a fresh batch of conscripts are taking their oath of allegiance observing is jan makatalo military professor of operational art and tactics at the national defence university this military oath is a very symbolic event they give their oath promising uh that they will defend finland with all the strengths that they have even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice they commit to that this conscript army is the backbone of finland's all-encompassing defense system known as comprehensive security it basically means that in the event of an invasion the entire finnish society can be mobilized to resist this was our experience from the second world war because we are a small country we are not able to maintain a large number army in peace time and in the war time we have to have a system that all the power all the forces of ice our societies directed for the defense of finland [Music] when the soviet union collapsed in the beginning of 1990s and the cold war ended most of the european countries abolished their large-scale armies they ended general conscription service they sold lots of material for example netherlands gave up the whole armoured force and we bought it as a small country we knew that we should have a readiness because we have our historical background being a neighbor with russia soviet union we can't afford to lose the infrastructure of the large-scale army we are not able to rebuild it in a short time that's why we maintained it and we kept a structure the backbone intact and now i think it was a very well done decision made by our politicians and our top generals back then so what is their structure finland's military is made up of a total of nine hundred thousand reservists of which two hundred and eighty thousand can be mustered to form a wartime strength of that two hundred and eighty thousand only three percent of full-time professional military personnel just 23 000 people on land finland has 200 tanks more than 2 000 armored vehicles over 100 self-propelled artillery pieces and more than 600 towed artillery weapons in the air the majority of their strength lies in the 50 single seat fa-18c hornets but by 2030 finland plans have procured 64 lockheed f-35 fighter jets in a deal which was sealed in late 2021 most of the finnish soil is still a forest with thick trees rocks difficult terrain for tanks to operate and the whole tactics all operational art whole doctrine of finnish defense forces it's planned according to that to take advantage of those features of our terrain [Applause] if there would be a surprise attack we have certain readiness forces which are prepared to give the first strike to hit hard to hit fast we have forces which are able to delay the enemy they are the new local forces that we are recreating and giving more strength to them the local forces they they are like an anvil and then we have operational forces which are like a sledgehammer and they eat together and hopefully the enemy will be between them and we think that that will be the end of the war the return of war to europe has led to a major boost to finland's military budget with the government promising to increase defence spending by 2.2 billion euro over the next four years putin's onslaught has also led to one of the most significant u-turns in recent finnish history reversing decades of military non-alignment in a country sat slap bang between east and west i warmly welcome the requests by finland and sweden to join nato nato or the north atlantic treaty organization is a defensive pact signed in the aftermath of world war ii between an initial 12 countries in this treaty we seek to establish freedom from aggression and from the use of force in the north atlantic community over the intervening decades the alliance has swelled to include 30 nations stretching from the u.s alaskan coast to turkey in the east the critical component to the alliance is article 5 which states that an armed attack against one or more nato countries shall be considered an attack against them all it's a security guarantee that up until now a majority of the finnish people were opposed to but russia's actions have flipped public opinion on its head if a neighbor of russia ukraine had even larger army than finland had and they are brother nations russians and ukrainians if if russia is able and willing to attack ukraine perhaps we have to rethink the whole picture again in addition to the disaster that russia has now in ukraine the actions of finland and sweden has been the second loss of russia they didn't expect us to act like this so i think our president said it very well in his speech he said that you caused this look at the mirror the benefits of membership for finland are obvious but what will nato gain from its newest applicant they will not get a country which is expecting all the help we are able to defend ourselves i think we have those kind of qualities that not so many nato countries right now have a large reserve joint fire ability air-to-ground capabilities long-range artillery and rocket fire systems we are able to defend our country even by ourselves this is sort of additional assurance i think our capabilities they will increase peace in scandinavia in the northern flank of nato just inside the arctic circle is western europe's largest military training area here amongst 1 200 square kilometers of lapland forest i'm about to witness proof of that sentiment these 48-ton south korean manufactured canine thunder howitzers can launch a 150 millimeter caliber projectile up to 40 kilometers at maximum range and when that payload lands it's capable of destroying an area between 50 and 100 meters wide each of these tanks is crewed by five soldiers for all but one their attendance is mandatory the only person here purely out of choice is 21 year old sophie hagman i think it's really important that everyone should defend our country in their own way and i wanted to do it in a military service women can volunteer to serve if they're between the ages of 18 and 29 and since 1995 more than 10 000 finnish women have done just that i want to defend my country in my in the military service and my father is a peacekeeper so the amos mortal system is a finish made system and the vehicle has two 120 millimeter mortar tubes on on the turret we have five five salvos so 10 grenades from this position the amos or advanced mortar system is crewed by a team of four and has a maximum range of 10 kilometers these may just be exercises but for the conscripts the real world unpredictability to the east is hard to ignore our neighbor is kind of threat sometimes and can be unpredictable you never know what's going to happen where we're located well you know you see where the world is right now of course the current situation in the world that war hasn't been but closer in many years sometimes i think think about it but i try to not think about it too much i stress myself out i think it's important that everyone carries their duty and we are here to defend our land as best as we can i don't think a lot of people before the situation in ukraine really thought that a large-scale war like that would ever happen again but now it's made you realize that it is still possible that we might have to actually use these weapons at some point of course we all hope we don't have to but it makes you think i think this is the job i would gladly do for my country if need be and i'd be prepared to do it as well of course i'm not saying that i wouldn't be scared of course i would but i'm prepared that if i need to i'm ready [Music] finland's genuinely anxious approach to national security isn't without historical justification it runs deep in our gene pool the memory of world war ii because i think finland lost something like 90 000 soldiers so it's still very alive live among the many finnish people it runs deep in our collective memory in november 1939 around a million troops of the soviet union's red army crossed into finnish territory beginning what is known as the winter war right over there you can see a finnish border soldier from the vindevour he's wearing a captured soviet light machine gun as his personal weapon and is also bearing on his belt famous molotov cocktail the improvised anti-tank defense device despite being vastly outnumbered the finnish forces managed to stave off the soviets for three months and inflicted devastating losses on the invading russians but eventually the soviet union's overwhelming manpower crushed the resistance and the 1940 moscow treaty was signed which ceded some 10 of finnish territory to stalin exactly the same scenario is going on over there in the ukraine which happened here over 80 years ago so the whole population was mobilized here and and we see the very same thing happening in the ukraine also we always knew that maybe someday the russian bear finds its strength again so it would be crazy or even suicidal to put down our defenses 5977 that's the estimated number of nuclear weapons currently in russia's arsenal it's the biggest stockpile in the world around 500 more than second place holder the united states since they were last used in combat in 1945 the power precision and strike speed of the world's nuclear weapons has increased dramatically russia's intercontinental ballistic missiles are fast enough to reach london in 20 minutes and powerful enough to destroy it entirely and the russian state isn't shy about threatening to use them if there are any sane people left in nato they will not approve a peacekeeping operation in ukraine why because a collective nato decision will mean a de facto declaration of war on russia to win this war whether we like it or not we will have to use tactical nuclear weapons in the theatre of operations since the war in ukraine began a steady stream of nuclear saber rattling from the kremlin has heightened atomic anxiety in a way not seen since the cold war but for finland living right next to the world's biggest store of nukes and not a nuclear power itself the threat of devastation is something the country has faced down for decades war is is one one thing that is on our threat assessment it is most likely not to happen but it still is a threat if the war happens to finland the effect to the people are so enormous that we need to take some measures against it [Music] buried deep into helsinki's billion-year-old bedrock is a sports centre car park kid's playground and if the need arises a 6 000 bed nuclear bunker able to survive an atomic bullseye the first barrier of the safety is the corridor where you came in it is descending and it is curving so it the corridor itself takes the most of the blast away and after that there is firstly uh the blastproof barricade and after that there is a gas-proof barricade any known weapon effects should be on our range even direct heat the merihaka shelter is 25 meters below ground and can be transformed from a leisure center into a life-saving hideaway in 72 hours so this is the one of the main sheltering halls all these halls are divided in smaller sheltering rooms by light equipments and by light flux structures to keep the person uh to feeling as secret as secure as possible so this is one specimen of the toilet unit and so all the markings on the floor should contain one one unit it is just a plastic bag just plastic bag the unit is connected to the ventilation system so the odors of the toilet mostly go outside of the shelter six thousand persons there would be a lot of orders secure yes safe yes but comfortable well probably not we don't provide food we provide air and water and shelter and that's it we can survive without air approximately three minutes and we can survive without water approximately three days and we can survive without food approximately three weeks this isn't a hotel we don't have a breakfast buffet no netflix no sorry sorry in helsinki alone there are around 5 hundred shelters with enough space for nine hundred thousand people two hundred and fifty thousand more than the population to account for commuters and tourists the entire country has some fifty thousand bomb shelters most of them private by law any building in finland over 1 200 square meters must be built with a shelter meaning many of them have dual uses metro stations swimming pools gyms skate parks and in the north in lapland even santa's grotto can be converted into a bomb shelter as well as being able to absorb a direct nuclear strike engineers have constructed the merry hakka shelter to withstand the aftermath of an attack as well radiation comes in two forms straight radiation and fallout radiation so we can filter out the fallout with the ventilation system on filters but the straight radiation is absorbed to the bedrock if we know there is possible of contamination on the city we need to decontaminate contaminated persons that are coming inside of the shelter with water and brushes and soap one thing that can't be planned for is the psychological stress of locking six thousand frightened people underground for an indeterminate period the most common thing for everyone inside of the shelter is the fear and the fear is universal it doesn't divide us by color of our skin or by our religion or power by the way we talk or or the language it is universal and it's it is joint the fear unites us like helsinki's bunkers the will to survive is something deep and unshakable that holds finnish society together this instinct can be encapsulated by a word that has no literal translation in english see so ah it's kind of combination of crit perseverance and stubbornness kind of put those in in a back and mix it and i think that's the closest where you can get with sisu it's not about war and battle this same sisu it's it's about living in finland hard winters lots of suffering in the finnish history and the whole nation has held it together and and maybe that's maybe sisu is the explanation for that i think sisu means that in a in a wartime situation we would fight like hell because we know that we are fighting for our homes and our loved ones and we are fighting for a good cause for the right cause and during peace time we keep calm and and just go go on living we don't get nervous we don't panic at all we try to adapt that's sisu for me in a nutshell guts so to speak not giving up no matter how bad it's going you know it could be going all wrong but you're just going to push through because you have the will it's the will to try no matter what perseverance some kind of courage some kind of of keeping your own head standing your ground

Channel: The Sun

Views: 1,833,206

Keywords: The Sun, news, breaking news, NATO, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Putin, Ukraine war, field guns, russia, ukrainian, explosions, war in ukraine, putin, missile launchers, tanks, eu, europe, allies, Nuclear war, Helsinki, NATO forces, Finland military, Finland reservists, NATO war, War, Artillery, FInland army, Shooting, Soldiers, Finland documentary, NATO documentary, War documentary, Military documentary, Doco, Full doco, Finland joins NATO, Finland NATO, New NATO member, NATO New member, Finnish

Id: 7WRPtWjZbf8

Length: 32min 7sec (1927 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 29 2022