By AFP and Kontur | 2026-06-19

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) northeastern flank is seeing a wave of new activity, with the alliance both bolstering its military presence around Sweden and Finland and rallying political support for Ukraine's eventual membership.

NATO ground forces on June 6 started operations aimed at boosting defenses around Sweden and Finland, two of its newest members. Following Russia's all-out 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the two Nordic countries abandoned decades of military non-alignment to join NATO, with Finland entering the alliance in 2023 and Sweden the following year.

The region around the two countries, part of NATO's northeastern flank, "is one of the most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas in the world," NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, said in a statement.

Sweden and Finland lie on the Baltic Sea, the waterway used by Russian warships heading to or from Saint Petersburg or the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and Finland, which shares a border with Russia, fought two wars against the Soviet Union during World War II.

The newly activated force, called Forward Land Forces Finland and established by a 2024 NATO decision, is designed to act as a rapid-reaction unit and includes a Swedish battle group. NATO has similar land units already in place in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

"Irreversible path"

The push to reinforce the alliance's northern and eastern edges has political dimensions as well.

Nordic and Baltic countries on June 9 declared their support for Ukraine's "irreversible path" to NATO membership at a summit in Tallinn with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) regional cooperation format, met as the alliance prepares for its own summit in Turkey next month, where Ukraine is expected to take part.

"Ukraine is a strategic security partner to NATO, contributing directly to Euro-Atlantic security through its battlefield experience, technological innovation and industrial capacity," the NB8 leaders said in a joint statement, adding that they support Ukraine's path "to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership."

On the sidelines of the Tallinn summit, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs and Zelenskyy signed a cooperation agreement on drones, according to the BNS news agency, outlining a technological and industrial exchange that allows Latvia to draw on Ukraine's battlefield know-how in drone technology.

The agreement reflects the pressure Baltic countries have faced since the war began: sharing a long land border with Russia, they have seen growing hybrid threats, including drone incursions into their airspace.

French NATO jets shot down a drone over Latvia on Monday, and President Emmanuel Macron joined the NB8 summit by video link, telling the leaders that as Russia's offensive falters in Ukraine, the Kremlin is seeking to provoke its neighbors.

"We will face them together," he said.