![]() “Sunday morning queue at 08.00 Finnish time approximately 500 m,” he added. The border crossing of Vaalimaa in south east Finland was the busiest crossing point for Russians coming into the country, Pitkäniitty said in another post Sunday. Saturday’s number is a 62% increase compared to last Saturday’s, Pitkäniitty said. Week ago Saturday 5,286 entered,” said Matti Pitkäniitty, the head of the International Affairs Unit at Finnish Border Guard, in a post on social media Sunday. “Saturday 8,572 Russians arrived to Finland via Finnish Russian land border. Niinistö's comments come as Finish border officials reported more than 8,500 Russians travelled into Finland by land on Saturday. "He is a fighter, so it is very difficult seeing him accepting any kind of defeat and this surely makes the situation very critical." ![]() "He has put all in," Niinistö told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. President Sauli Niinistö of Finland warned Sunday of a dangerous moment in the Ukraine war, with Russian President Vladimir Putin having invested so much credibility in an invasion that has turned against him. Sauli Niinistö, Finland's president, speaks during a news conference in Washington, DC, on May 19. You can read Collinson's full analysis here. Such conditions mean clear strategic thinking and rational decisions cannot be taken for granted, especially since the ruthless Russian leader's sense of caution deserted him with his reckless leadership of the war in Ukraine. He has already shown callous indifference to human and civilian life in Ukraine. Putin is led by a sense of historic mission rooted in a desire to restore respect for Russia as a great civilization. And while Putin's political position doesn't seem immediately threatened, he's facing increasing dissent at home and appears consumed by fury against the US and the West that is vehement even for him. ![]() He is in a corner, a reality that may explain his return to nuclear scare tactics. And Putin has played the nuclear card before in the conflict in an apparent effort to frighten Western publics and to fracture support for Kyiv in the transatlantic alliance.īut at the same time, the Russian leader has gone all in on a war that he cannot afford to lose but that is going increasingly badly for Russia, as last week's partial national mobilization showed. ![]() There are no public reports that the Kremlin is readying its stock of battlefield nuclear weapons for use or that it has changed the posture of its international strategic missiles. Many Western observers believe Putin is bluffing and that there are strategic reasons for Moscow to stop short of this fateful step. Putin's rhetoric was a reminder that the better the war goes for Ukraine, the more the West will need to keep its nerve, especially if the Russian leader becomes more boxed in and tries to scare his foes with Russia's best leverage - its nuclear arsenal. Kyiv's forces have won victories in the east using billions of dollars in Western-provided arms and Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded by pouring thousands more men onto the frontlines.įacing increasing political pressure at home, isolation abroad and battlefield humiliations, the Russian leader ratcheted up his nuclear brinkmanship last week in warning that he could use all weapons systems available to him if he considered Russia's territorial integrity under threat. That the United States should be forced to warn Russia publicly, and in more strident terms privately, not to use nuclear weapons is a mark of how dangerous the battle for Ukraine has become - and how much more risky it might get. In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in Moscow, Russia, on September 21.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |