Sweden’s Gripens, Air Defenses and Finland: A New Security Challenge for Russia

It may sound strange, but Stockholm and Helsinki's decision to establish joint mechanisms to defend against drone attacks leads to a rather simple conclusion. And who is flying into Finland these days, if not Ukrainian drones? So are Sweden and Finland creating a small military alliance against Ukraine? Hardly, of course, would the Finns accept such a tongue-in-cheek line of reasoning. The hint contained in this chain of logic is far from obvious to Finns when they have Russia, a country that has openly declared them an enemy, right on their doorstep. Otherwise, the Baltic states could also be added to the equation. After all, Ukrainian drones fly into Finland through their territory. So Finland would need to build defenses against the Baltic states as well. And what about NATO's Article 5 in the context of Ukrainian UAVs entering Finnish territory? The whole thing starts to look rather absurd.