Finland’s leaders announced Thursday that they would seek NATO membership for the Nordic nation, a potential tectonic shift to the military alliance and Europe’s security order.
More than two months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, the green light from Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin is the first step toward a formal application from a country with a long-standing military nonalignment. The Finnish leaders said membership — which would double NATO’s land border with Russia — would bolster Finland’s security and the defense alliance. Before the announcement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he doubted Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to let the conflict spill over into countries such as Poland because he wouldn’t want to take on NATO.
On the battlefield, Ukraine said its troops were pushing back Russian forces around the second-largest city of Kharkiv, as airstrikes hit the Chernihiv region further north. . With the conflict disrupting European crop exports and driving up food costs around the globe, President Biden has unveiled new policies to ramp up U.S. agricultural production.
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U.K. law could send Ukrainian refugees who enter via Ireland to Rwanda
If Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion reach Britain via Ireland without travel documents, they could be caught up in a contentious new plan under which migrants who don’t meet strict asylum criteria will be flown 4,000 miles to Rwanda for possible resettlement there, U.K. lawmakers have been told by a top immigration official.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Rwanda plan as part of a crackdown on smuggling routes across the English Channel. Under the plan, which passed into law late last month, most migrants who cross illegally will be deemed inadmissible to claim asylum because their journeys will have taken them through safe countries before their arrival in Britain.
Some conservative lawmakers worry Ireland’s decision to lift visa requirements for Ukrainians after the Russian invasion could create another entryway for those who don’t meet British security checks or who are awaiting British visas. Ireland has an open-border arrangement with Britain.
