After the first year of the war in Ukraine, Finland has become one of the country’s largest donors. Even in 2022, Finland assisted Ukraine cautiously.
Finland started supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia immediately after the fighting broke out in the winter of 2022. The first aid package was decided on February 27, i.e. three days after the outbreak of the war.
Since then, support packages have accumulated at a rapid pace. The latest aid package announced in April is the 23rd in a row. With that, the total amount of aid to Ukraine will rise to two billion euros, according to the Ministry of Defense.
The style changed in 2023
In aid to Ukraine, the increase in the rate of support after a slow start is striking.
In 2022, Finland assisted Ukraine with 189 million euros. In 2023, the first aid package was already worth more than 400 million euros. It contained heavy weaponry and ammunition.
A total of 1.4 billion euros worth of defense equipment packages left Finland for Ukraine last year. The value of the aid increased more than sevenfold from the previous year.
This year, packages totaling 400 million euros have already been decided, and the brisk pace continues. In accordance with the security cooperation agreement signed in April, Finland undertakes to supply weapons to Ukraine for years to come.
Bulletproof vests and helmets
Leading researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Charly Salonius-Pasternak find several reasons why the grant amounts were first mentioned and later encouraged.
The first is the content of the help. 2022 sent to Ukraine, among other things, bulletproof vests, helmets, assault rifles and cartridges, disposables and combat food packages. They were cheap stuff compared to the heavy armament that came later.
In 2023, Finland sent, among other things, six Leopard 2 armored personnel carriers, anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
The second reason is related to the definition of the value of auxiliary packages. According to Salonius-Pasternak’s memory, in the beginning Finland defined the value of the aid packages according to the stock value.
– If the handed over item was old, Soviet-made material, it had almost no accounting value left.
Other countries calculated the value of the aid packages in a different way, according to the compensation value. That is, how much did replacing the surrendered defense material with equivalent performance actually cost you.
– When there was competition for the one who helped more, almost all other countries reduced their aid amounts to the upper limit in this way, according to the compensation value, Salonius-Pasternak describes.
And Finland possibly at the beginning, so according to the stock value.
– Thus, the monetary value of Finland’s support remained at the bottom, because basic functional but old material had been given, when there has been a lot of it given.
The term changed
The Ministry of Defense used the word “joint value” when informing about the value of the support until the end of 2022. The term changed to “replaceable value” from the beginning of 2023, and since then “replaceable value” has been the standard wording in aid package bulletins. Around the same time, the government granted additional funding of 704 million euros for compensation procurement.
The reason for the term change may also be that the outdated defense material had already largely been given to Ukraine.
– I have realized that there are no more of them left in Finland. This can also explain the increase in value of weapon packs.
Recently, a new and expensive one has apparently been delivered, because the old one has already been given.
After the first weeks of the war, the Ministry of Defense has provided information about the contents of the aid packages sparingly, and it does not provide information even now. That’s why it didn’t give an interview for this story either.
– The aid always takes into account both Ukraine’s needs and the resource situation of the Defense Forces, the ministry says.
Nato-jami emmitti
The third reason for aid caution is related to Finland’s NATO membership application, the approval of which Turkey and Hungary, for their own reasons, pledged until the spring of 2023.
– During the application process, there was concern that Finland’s defense capability had to be maintained sufficiently, because Finland was not yet a member of the military alliance, Salonius-Pasternak describes.
Finland’s NATO goal began to loom strongly at the beginning of 2023. President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö traveled to Turkey on March 16 to receive confirmation of Finland’s NATO membership. According to Niinistö, the reason for the visit had been known for some time.
Finland became a member of NATO on April 4, 2023. The same spring also coincides with a sharp increase in support amounts.
– Back then, there was already a readiness to take more risks in terms of security policy. In the statements of soldiers and politicians, it constantly comes up that there is a balance between maintaining national defense and supporting Ukraine, Salonius-Pasternak says.
Ukraine thanks
The Ukrainian embassy also refused to comment on the content of the arms aid provided by Finland.
– We are very grateful for the comprehensive support provided by Finland, the mission communicated via email.
also interviewed a Ukrainian about the arms aid provided by Finland Mihailo Samusta, who works as the director of the New Geopolitics research network in Kyiv. He doesn’t know the contents of the arms aid either, but he knows Ukraine’s aid needs.
– Above all, we need more ammunition, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and artillery air defense.
Soviet-era armament is also perfectly fine, if Finland still has it to offer.
– Of course, because Ukrainian soldiers already know how to use Soviet weapons, and there is no need to learn how to use them separately, as is the case with Western weapons.
According to Samus, for example, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have donated old tanks, armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and Soviet-caliber ammunition to Ukraine.
Finland’s top supporters
Finland is one of Ukraine’s top supporters. In the list of arms aid maintained by the Kiel Institute, Finland ranks tenth in the list of 31 countries. France, Italy and Spain, among others, are clearly behind Finland.
In the list relative to gross domestic product, Finland ranks ninth in a comparison of 41 countries. Germany, Sweden and the United States, among others, fall behind Finland.