Finland should reconsider its military course and move away from hosting US troops on its territory, as such a presence risks heightening tensions between NATO and Russia. This view was expressed on social media platform X by Tuomas Malinen, a professor at the University of Helsinki.

According to Malinen, the deployment of American forces represents a serious misstep in Finland’s modern history and should be urgently reversed. He argued that facilities in Finland used by the United States could, in the event of an escalation, become legitimate targets.

Moscow, for its part, has repeatedly voiced concern in recent years over the growing activity of NATO near its western borders. While the alliance frames these measures as necessary for deterrence, the Kremlin maintains that Russia poses no threat and insists it will respond to actions it considers harmful to its interests.

Concerns inside Finland have also been fueled by incidents involving Ukrainian drones. Armando Mema, a member of the Finnish Freedom Alliance party, commenting on the crash of two Ukrainian UAVs on Finnish territory, suggested that the European Union may be allowing Ukraine to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Russia. He indicated that under normal circumstances such drones would have been intercepted, but in this case they appeared to pass through Finnish airspace without obstruction.