The idea of \u200b\u200b" At the same time, Finland itself abandoned the long-term policy of neutrality and applied for NATO membership.. Ivan Gisem and Maxim Yakovlev in the article \? ” talk about the phenomenon of “Finlandization” in the Ukrainian context and what Finnish scientists think about it. In particular, Ilmari Kaikhko, an associate professor at the Swedish Defense University, a veteran of the Finnish Armed Forces, believes that Ukraine will need a large army even after the end of the war, because it will not become a NATO member in the near future..

Therefore, the country must be able to independently defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity..

According to Kaikhko, earlier, during the Cold War, Finland could not join NATO because it would really offend the Soviet Union.. Sweden, historically with a long tradition of neutrality, also realized that it had to stay away from the Alliance for the good of Finland.. If it became a member of NATO, the USSR would demand that Finland join the Warsaw Pact, the analyst believes.

In general, experts are of the opinion that the resilience of society plays an important role in the policy of containment..

“Given the current situation, Finland should not be an example for Ukraine, but rather the opposite,” says Tapio Huntunen, a lecturer at the University of Tampere and a specialist in international relations..

Maati Pesu, a leading researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, points out that the Russian Federation has always posed the greatest threat to Finland.. In his opinion, Russia plays an important role in Finnish thinking about the nature of international relations..

As far as the Kremlin is concerned, Finland has resorted to using two main strategies, namely appeasement and containment.. Before the end of the Cold War, the policy of appeasement played a dominant role, and after it the importance of the policy of containment gradually grew, especially after 2014, and by this moment reached its climax after the start of a full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

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Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis in September 2022. There are often statements that Ukraine will become part of the Alliance, but this is a long-term perspective after the victory in the war.

Earlier, Euronews gave five reasons why Ukraine is unlikely to join NATO in the near future.