Chris Lange, FISM News
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Finland will formally join NATO Tuesday, becoming the 31st member of the largest security alliance in the world in a massive blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The blue and white flag of Finland was raised this morning outside NATO’s Brussels headquarters alongside those of its allies. Its formal induction coincides with the 74th anniversary of the Washington Treaty that established the international military alliance.
“President Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO. He is getting exactly the opposite,” alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO’s Brussels headquarters early on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The Kremlin said that Russia will have no choice but to take “countermeasures” in response to Finland’s accession and that it will closely monitor any NATO military developments in the country with which it shares an 832-mile border.
RUSSIAN COURT PROVIDES FIRST UPDATE ON DETAINED US REPORTER
A Russian court acknowledged on Monday that it had received an appeal against the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich days after the 31-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested by Russia’s Security Service on charges of espionage. Gershkovich, whom the agency acknowledged was an accredited journalist in Russia at the time of his arrest, was sent to the notorious czarist-era Lefortovo prison in Moscow last week to await trial.
ABC reported that a prison monitor provided state media outlets with the first account of Gershkovich’s health and living conditions on Monday, stating that he was being housed in a quarantine cell while undergoing medical examinations. The monitor said that Gershkovich had been reading a book from the prison library and that he had access to television, radio, and a refrigerator.
US TO HIT $32 BILLION MARK IN AID TO UKRAINE WITH NEW WEAPONS PACKAGE
The U.S. is set to give Ukraine another $500 million in ammunition and equipment and will spend more than $2 billion to provide the country with future supplies of munitions, radar, and other weapons
Speaking on condition of anonymity, U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the Biden administration will once again raid depleting U.S. weapons stockpiles to give Kyiv ammunition rounds, grenade launchers, and military vehicles ahead of Ukraine’s spring offensive. The $2.1 billion in longer-term assistance will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to purchase missiles for U.S.-supplied National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS, as well as radar and other weapons.
The Pentagon could announce the new package as early as today, which would bring the total amount of U.S. security assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last year to more than $35 billion. Defense officials testified before Congress last week that the U.S. is prepared to assist Ukraine for as long as necessary.
As the hotly contested battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut rages on, Russia has continued to pound Ukraine with long-range missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Associated Press that if his country loses Bakhmut, Russia will likely start rallying support for an agreement that would require Ukraine to make unacceptable concessions. Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that he will settle for nothing less than a deal to end the war that forces every last Russian occupier out of Ukraine.