Three-quarters of the country support Finland’s application to join Nato

Around three-quarters of the country support Finland’s application to join Nato, Finland's ambassador has said today.  Jukka Siukosaari said: “We see our security as a decision of our own and we are quite determined to keep that right.”

He added that the plan to join the 30-member state is for the sake of its own security and not an attack against Russia.

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, A Ukrainian commander in Mariupol has appealed directly to Elon Musk, asking the world’s richest man to intervene on behalf of those trapped by Russian forces in control of the southern city. Ukraine has said it will suspend the flow of gas through a transit point that it says delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe through Ukraine. Also, Ukraine claimed it has recaptured Pytomnyk, a village north of Kharkiv, about halfway to the Russian border. However, Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto, is expected to give a green light on Thursday for the country to join the NATO military alliance, while Sweden is expected to do so in the coming days.