Finland puts reservists on alert as tensions with Russia rise

HELSINKI — Finland has sent letters to nearly a million military reservists, setting out their roles “in the event of war” as tensions with neighbouring Russia rise.

The letters have been despatched to 900,000 former conscripts in the armed forces, including Finns living abroad. The first batch of letters was sent earlier this month, with the final lot mailed in the past few days.

Finland, which is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), shares a 1,335km border with Russia — the longest of any European nation apart from the Russia-Ukraine boundary.

In the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the invasion of eastern Ukraine, Finland is uniquely vulnerable to any further aggression.

The letter tells reservists which regiment or unit to report to in the event of hostilities. “Attached you will find your personal details and your role in the event of war,” it reads.

A Finnish reservist who had received the letter said: “The timing was not random. It is clearly due to a more aggressive stance by the Russians. I’ve been in the reserves for 15 years and this is the first time I’ve received something like this. They send out letters like this very rarely.”

Finland’s army has 16,000 soldiers, but it will increase to more than 240,000 if the reserves are mobilised.

The government has denied that the letters are connected to the crisis in Ukraine or tensions with Russia, saying that plans for the mass delivery began two years ago. “The reservist letter is associated with our intention to develop communication with our reservists and not with the prevailing security situation,” said Finnish Defence Forces spokesman Mika Kalliomaa.

The aim was to check that the military had the right contact details of all reservists, he added.

However, even if the initiative predated Russia’s seizure of Crimea, experts said the letter had clearly been prompted by worries about the Kremlin’s intentions. “If Russia had headed down the path towards being a liberal democracy, there would not have been the pressure to do this,” said senior research fellow Charly Salonius-Pasternak from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

“In the current reality, it makes sense. The Finnish Defence Forces want to make sure that if they need to blow the whistle, they can rely on 230,000 reserves.”

Mr Salonius-Pasternak added: “That is linked with the increasing instability in the region. Russia has shown it can transport large numbers of troops across vast distances very quickly. I have never had so many people coming up to me to ask whether they should be worried about the security situation.”

The Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939, seizing more than 10 per cent of the country’s territory. Helsinki was officially neutral during the Cold War but remained under the influence of its neighbour, which has a land mass 50 times the size of Finland.

In recent months, Russian warplanes have frequently probed Finnish air defences. Last month, the Finnish navy depth-charged a submarine that had been detected near Helsinki.

Neighbouring countries are also in a heightened state of alert. Last October, Sweden carried out a massive military mobilisation to hunt for a submarine sighted near Stockholm.

Although not a member of NATO, Finland has strengthened its ties with the Atlantic alliance. Last month, the country promised more military cooperation with the armed forces of other Nordic countries. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH