00:00Until Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the consensus in Finland was that it wasn't necessary to join NATO.
00:07Since the Second World War, when Finland was temporarily occupied by Russia,
00:11the country developed and maintained the highest level of defense protection through public vigilance and deterrence
00:17with a well-funded military which has conscription for young men for at least one year's mandatory service.
00:23Even throughout the peaceful post-Soviet era, Finland never let its guard down.
00:28Now in this moment of untold volatility, Europe is hoping to learn from Finnish preparedness.
00:35Finnish border guards have to be prepared for any low-level incident, but also including a full-scale invasion.
00:40This is Finnish territory, but also NATO territory.
00:43Also not too far away from here is Russia's nuclear deterrence.
00:47It's part of the defense system of Finland, so we prepared also to be part of Finnish territorial defense.
00:56And what does that mean?
00:56We, for example, we train our conscripts for our reserve, which is a useful tool if necessary on the wartime.
01:06So basically a full-scale invasion?
01:09Yeah, that's correct.
01:10On the Russian border, conscripts are trained for the wide gamut of roles in the army, including sniper or marksman.
01:17I've never held a rifle in my life, so first time shooting was in the army.
01:21You start off with the basic assault rifle, and I found out in the army that I have a gift
01:26for shooting.
01:28So that's how I got into this marksman.
01:31Russian aggression in Ukraine has had dire consequences for the indigenous Sami people, who are native to Russia, Finland and
01:38Norway.
01:38Finland's Sami people have had to cut dives from their Russian brethren, many of whom were forced into the Russian
01:44army to attack Ukraine.
01:47One of the terrible, terrible things is that some of the Sami brothers on the Russian side have been forcibly
01:54conscripted to the Russian army and sent to the war front in Ukraine.
02:00And we have also lost at least, I think, seven Sami young men.
02:05And it's a huge loss in a small community, about 2,000.
02:09Europe now acknowledges the transatlantic alliance is not as viable as it once was.
02:13The U.S. is now calling for Europe to help its war efforts in Iran, or risk them pulling completely
02:19away from helping Ukraine with military intelligence as it defends itself from Russia.
02:25Ukraine is not a bargaining chip.
02:26As I said, a huge shift of attention, also from the U.S., would be a huge mistake.
02:34But what we have to do is to continue to convince the U.S. that they have to be engaged
02:40to help Ukraine.
02:41And we have to do our job also to reinforce our support to Ukraine from the military financial perspective.
02:47Finland's border guard stretches 1,350 kilometers with Russia, the largest inside NATO.
02:53But the Finns say they're ready for anything.
02:55Shona Murray, Euronews, Giuseppe, Finland.
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