UK voices support for possible NATO memberships for Finland, Sweden

The United Kingdom on Thursday said it would support whatever decision Sweden and Finland make about whether to join NATO, despite threats from Russia against the two countries joining the military alliance.

“Russian threats towards the Nordic & Baltic states are not new and only strengthen our unity,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted. “Sweden and Finland are free to choose their future without interference — the UK will support whatever they decide.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its second month, has sparked urgent debate in Sweden and Finland over whether the countries should join NATO.

Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia, warned in a Telegram post on Thursday that should the two European countries join NATO, “it will no longer be possible to talk about any nuclear-free status of the Baltic.”

Russia would need to “seriously strengthen the grouping of land forces and air defense, deploy significant naval forces in the waters of the Gulf of Finland,” Medvedev said.

Russia has similarly opposed Ukraine joining the military alliance. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has previously sought for Ukraine to join NATO, gave the military alliance harsh marks in an interview with CBS News’s “60 Minutes” last weekend.

“When you’re working in diplomacy, there are no results. All of this is very bureaucratic,” Zelensky said.

“That’s why the way I am talking to them is absolutely justified. I don’t have any more lives to give. I don’t have any more emotions. I’m no longer interested in their diplomacy that leads to the destruction of my country,” the president noted.