Any decision by Finland to allow a “concentration” of troops on its border with Russia would be viewed by Moscow as a threat, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Poland offered to send military advisers to help Helsinki police the frontier.
The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said in a post on social media X late on Tuesday that Poland would send military advisers to its NATO ally Finland, in response to “an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border.”
“A team of military advisers will provide on-site knowledge on border security, also in operational terms,” he said.
Finland said on Wednesday it was unaware of the Polish offer. It has closed its entire 1,340 km (833 mile) border with Russia for two weeks in a bid to halt an unusually large flow of asylum seekers that Helsinki says amounts to a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Moscow, a charge the Kremlin denies.
Asked about the Polish offer to Finland during a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is an absolutely redundant measure to ensure border security, because there is no threat there.”
“The Finns must be clearly aware that an increase in the concentration of military units on our borders will pose a threat to us.” Any planned deployment would be unprovoked and unjustified, he added.
Finland’s Border Guard and the interior ministry both said they were unaware of any plan to bring Polish military advisers to Finland’s eastern border.
The Finnish foreign and defense ministries and its defense forces did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto held talks with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Warsaw last week but they did not discuss military cooperation on the Finnish border with Russia, Niinisto’s office said in a statement to Reuters.
Finland infuriated Russia earlier this year when it joined NATO, ending decades of military non-alignment, due to the war in Ukraine.
Russia says it has taken control of a village outside Bakhmut
Russia’s defense ministry claimed Wednesday that its forces had taken control of a village on the outskirts of the war-torn town of Bakhmut in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.
The ministry said units of its southern group of forces had “liberated” the village of Artemovskoye (called Khromove in Ukrainian) in what Russia calls the Donetsk People’s Republic, a self-proclaimed republic and pro-Russian separatist region.
“Units of the Southern Group of Forces, with the support of aviation and artillery fire, improved the situation along the front line and liberated the village of Artemovskoye,” the ministry said, according to comments reported by the TASS news agency.
The village had a pre-war population of 1,000 people, Reuters noted, and lies just east of Bakhmut, a town captured by Russian forces earlier this year after months of fighting that left the town largely destroyed.
3,000 additional Chechen fighters to be sent to Ukraine, leader says
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said an additional 3,000 Chechen fighters will be sent to fight in Ukraine.
“To solve the tasks set by our Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin, we will not spare any effort or resources,” Kadyrov said on Telegram Monday, adding: “This position is shared with me by another three thousand worthy Chechen soldiers who have begun service as part of new units of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard.”
He said two new regiments subordinate to Russia’s defense ministry had been created, called “AKHMAT-Russia” and “AKHMAT-Chechnya.” Kadyrov said most of the troops have battle experience and “the best equipment and modern weapons.”
“In addition, the guys are highly combative and very motivated to achieve results.”
Chechen fighters have a fierce reputation- one gained in two wars fought against Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s when the Chechen Republic sought independence from Russia. Times have changed since then, however, and Kadyrov is a Putin loyalist.
Kadyrov said the 3,000 Chechen personnel were “the best of the best” and described them as “the ones who deserve to be the loyal foot soldiers of our unsurpassed leader Vladimir Putin!”
Other key developments and battlefield updates
Moscow does not have plans to expand its territory any farther in Europe, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted in response to remarks by the US defense secretary last week that Putin would not stop at Ukraine if he was victorious. The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, said last week: “Putin won’t stop if he takes Ukraine. The next thing will be him rolling across the Baltics… and the next thing you know, you and your comrades will be on the frontlines fighting against a Putin that we should have stopped, or Ukraine could have stopped early on.”
Ukraine will become a member of NATO subject to reforms after the war, the military alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. NATO states still agreed that full membership remained impossible in the midst of war, even while ways to move Ukraine and NATO closer continued, he added. This month Germany and the Netherlands pledged €10bn for Ukraine, Romania added a F16 training center for Ukrainian pilots, and allies including the US and Finland are sending more air defenses and ammunition to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian attacks.
Stoltenberg also said that Sweden’s pending NATO membership “will make us all safer” and he called on Turkey and Hungary to complete its ratifications.
The NATO secretary-general said that some of the most intense fighting of the war has taken place in recent weeks in the east of Ukraine. Russian forces have made confirmed advances north-west and south-east of Avdiivka over the weekend, said the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Exports to Russia from Turkey of civilian goods used by the military such as microchips and telescopic sights are increasing, causing concern to the US and the EU, which seeks to prevent such items entering the country.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
