Zelenskiy: "There is updated intelligence indicating that Russia is ​preparing a massive attack on Ukraine"

[u/Raj_Valiant3011]

https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-intelligence-shows-russia-is-preparing-massive-attack-2026-10-06/

[u/spongefile]

Finnish person here(we share the longest border in Europe with Russia): we were 75% against joining NATO since forever. We wanted to stay neutral and had no interest in joining the creepy uncle of America, nor the abusive uncle of Russia. We kept our heads down and played nice.

We understood that the rule was that if we stay meek and nice, Russia will leave us alone. Our press and politicians were very careful never to provoke Russia in any capacity.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and we all went HOLY SHIT because from our perspective, Russia just threw the rule out the window. Total PTSD from the last time they bombed and invaded us. We still have the marks from that on our buildings, and we remember our grandparents’ stories.

Result: Finland went from totally against NATO to totally pro NATO literally overnight. Thanks to Putin’s own actions, not some nefarious NATO plot.

[u/Konstanin_23 → u/spongefile]

As Russian, I can clearly say to you - everyone has considered you as part of NATO. It was obvious.

[u/spongefile → u/Konstanin_23]

That’s funny because you should have seen the angry debates about this in previous years, how vehemently opposed people were. Very much“Obviously we should stay neutral and not mess with the craziness of the rest of the world.”

That being said, the military was always training to defend against a Russian invasion specifically. Because, well, the last time Sweden invaded us was quite a while back, meanwhile Russia took a huge chunk of our land quite recently. (My great aunt was still sad about beautiful Karelia lost in her lifetime) So it makes more sense to be on full alert to be ready to defend in that direction. Still not the same as wanting to be part of NATO though, and certainly less than zero interest in attacking Russia in any capacity.

[u/Konstanin_23 → u/spongefile]

Imagine scenario before you joined. And some war between NATO country started vs Russia, im specifically do not mention conditions so we can only imagine. I'm 100% Finland would join NATO forces no matter what or at least let them go through Finland territory, while never opposite.

Lets be honest, Russia took part of Finland LONG time ago, no one who lives right now seen it, or was a baby. And needs to undertand that you were 22 years old country. Your independence were forced to old rullers.

Happy you stood for independance. And wish you prosperity. May we be good neigbhours, not an enemies.

[u/spongefile → u/Konstanin_23]

I don’t know how old you are, but that’s a bit of a flippant statement, as though cultures have memories that short. :D (I mean the whole premise of invading Ukraine is ”it has always been Russian” and pointing to something Putin believes was the case centuries ago)

Most people remember older people telling stories about the refugees, or being a refugee, or lost homes and war trauma and so on. It was a huge portion of the country! It wasn’t just a little news item that passes, it had impacts that are still felt. I used to take the train to St Petersburg regularly and whenever we stopped in Viipuri all Finns would go suddenly quiet like we were passing a corpse.

If NATO had randomly invaded Russia at any point, I actually can’t imagine Finland joining in. What would we gain from that other than potential aggression against ourselves? We were happily doing business with you all and had everything to gain from things staying peaceful.

Everything, and I mean literally every detail of our politics and military has been designed around ”let’s defend what we have if threatened, but otherwise neutral on all things.” Stalin compared us to a hedgehog and that’s pretty accurate.

Now if Russia took a threatening action, like invaded Estonia, that would be different. But that’s exactly what I was explaining about our joining NATO now. We never would have if Putin would have left Ukraine alone.

We still don’t want any conflict with Russia now. We’re just concerned about your current president and government occasionally saying stuff like we should be part of the empire again.

[u/Konstanin_23 → u/spongefile]

I'm almost 40, I'm half Ukrainian and half Baltic from Siberia. Ukraine literally Rus together with Russia and Belarus, Ukrainians is the main minority in country. This is correct, this should never be justification of war. Damn I remember how nice it was before 2014. We shared same culture, same internet and used to act like a friends.

Putin wants Ukraine because he wants to grow his sphere of influence, not because they are the some or anything like that.

So far NATO did only aggressive wars and never has been used as defensive.

However im surprised to hear that Finland really tried to think about themself as neutral. Literally everyone considered them part of NATO, probably because they were part of EU. It remind me about first sanctions we faced from EU. Government made some other restrictions back, but included Norway as well because they considered them being part of EU as well.

And honestly...He's 70 y.o. old man who talks with only his bootlicking administration. He reads books of Russian/German nazi philosopher and considers him as one of the best minds of 20 century. He obsessed with history books like every old spy and dreams about his greatnes, about leaving his name in those books. Whatever President Administration brings him it would be truth for him, so no real world reality would ever affect him.