Russia says it will respond if Finland hosts nuclear arms

Russia said on Friday it would respond if Finland placed nuclear weapons on its territory, saying such a move would make the Nordic country more vulnerable.

The Kremlin reacted sharply after Nato member Finland said on Thursday it was planning to lift a longstanding ban on hosting such weapons, in a move that could open the door to placing them there during times of war.

“This is a statement that leads to an escalation of tensions on the European continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“This statement adds to Finland’s vulnerability, a vulnerability provoked by the actions of the Finnish authorities. The fact is that by deploying nuclear weapons on its territory, Finland is beginning to threaten us. And if Finland threatens us, we take appropriate measures.”

The Finnish shift is part of a wider rethink of European deterrence that has prompted France to offer to extend the protection of its nuclear arsenal to other allies on the continent.

The changes are being driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the unpredictable behaviour of US President Donald Trump - notably his threat to take over Greenland - which has unsettled his Nato allies.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told reporters during a visit to India that the change “is not about Finland facing any acute or sudden security threat. It is about ensuring that we can participate fully in Nato’s nuclear planning.”

He said Finland did not want a nuclear weapon on its territory but was aligning itself with the policy of its Nordic neighbours.

Neighbouring Sweden’s doctrine is to station no permanent foreign troops or nuclear weapons on its soil in peacetime, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said last week, when asked about the possibility of his country hosting French nuclear arms.

“If we were to find ourselves in a completely different situation, that particular formulation would not apply,” Kristersson said.

The shifts by Finland and Sweden are all the more striking as both nations maintained neutrality during the Cold War and joined Nato only in 2023 and 2024 respectively, after Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine.

Finland shares a border of 1,340 km with Russia.

Macron announced on Monday a plan to expand France’s nuclear arsenal and said other European countries would be able to take part in French nuclear exercises. France and Germany said they had set up a nuclear steering group to discuss deterrence issues.

Russia said Macron’s announcement was an “extremely destabilising development” that posed a potential threat to Moscow.

Russia itself has repeatedly used veiled nuclear threats to deter the West from intervening too far in support of Ukraine during the four-year war.

Separately, Hungary will expel seven detained Ukrainians, the government said on Friday, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traded threats in a row over stalled Russian oil supplies.

Kyiv accused Budapest of kidnapping seven of its citizens on Friday, as Orban said he would use “every means” to pressure Ukraine over the Russian oil.

A day earlier, Zelensky appeared to have issued a direct threat against Orban, saying Ukraine’s armed forces would “talk to him in their own language.”

Hungary and Slovakia say Ukraine is deliberately delaying reopening a key pipeline pumping Russian oil to the two landlocked EU member states, which Kyiv says was damaged by Russian strikes in January.

Early on Friday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga accused Hungary of taking “hostage” a group of Ukrainian bank employees who were transporting $40 million, 35 million euros and nine kilogrammes of gold through the country.

Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration said it detained seven Ukrainian citizens, including a former Ukrainian secret service general, and two armoured cash transport vehicles on Thursday.

NAV “is conducting criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering,” it said in a statement, adding the investigation was done in cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism Centre.

Agencies