PICTURES | First major NATO artillery exercise in Finland

Finland is hosting its first large-scale NATO-organized artillery exercise since the Nordic country joined the military alliance last year, with live-fire exercises beginning on Sunday.

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The exercise in northern Lapland is part of Dynamic Front 25, the largest NATO artillery exercise ever held in Europe, with firing exercises in Finland as well as Estonia, in Germany, Romania and Poland.

For the first time, NATO allies are practicing large-scale artillery fire on Finnish soil, less than 200 km from the border with Russia.

The Nordic nation, which shares a 1,300 km border with Russia, joined NATO in April 2023, ending decades of military non-alignment following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We are working on interoperability with our allies, to carry out artillery fire in coherence with our NATO allies,” explained Romain, captain of the French army and commander of the Écrins battery of the 93^e mountain artillery regiment, giving only its first name.

His team was dressed in warm camouflage outfits in a field where the temperature is a few degrees below zero.

Up to 3,600 troops from Finland, the United States, Sweden, Britain, France and other NATO countries are training, as a damp cold sets in across the vast landscapes arctic Lapland.

The Lapland shooting range and training area, called Rovajarvi, is the largest in Europe.

“The area itself and its conditions are the reason why the allies want to come and train in the Rovajarvi exercise area,” Finnish Colonel Janne Makitalo, director of the exercise, told AFP.

It enables “multilateral tactical firefights for field artillery,” while training soldiers to handle the harsh conditions and varied terrain of the Arctic region, Colonel Makitalo explained.

This exercise comes as Finland closed its land border with Russia in December 2023, with Helsinki accusing Moscow of organizing the arrival of undocumented migrants in order to destabilize the Nordic country.