Finland's president called on Thursday for the country to remain calm while deciding whether to apply to join NATO as a defence against potential Russian aggression.

"In the midst of an acute crisis it is particularly important to keep a cool head and carefully assess the impact on our security" from the Ukraine crisis, President Sauli Niinisto said in a statement after meeting senior MPs and defence chiefs.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked a lively debate in Finland over whether the militarily non-aligned country should join NATO, with a recent poll showing majority support for membership for the first time.

Petitions in favour of a referendum on NATO membership have amassed tens of thousands of signatures in the last week, meaning the issue will be debated by MPs in parliament, the Eduskunta.

Finland, which shares a 1,300 kilometre (800 mile) border with Russia, remained neutral during the Cold War in exchange for assurances from Moscow that Soviet troops would not invade.

The Nordic country of 5.5 million people has since joined the EU and enjoys a close partnership with NATO, sharing intelligence and resources.

"Our security environment is now undergoing rapid and dramatic change," Niinisto said. "I fully understand the concern felt by Finns and the need to respond to the situation."

Experts expect Finland to act in concert with neighbouring Sweden on whether to join NATO.

If they did, it would further heighten tensions between Russia and the West, since the eastward expansion of the alliance is the prime security grievance of the Kremlin.

Last Friday, Russia's foreign ministry warned that if the Nordic countries were to join NATO it would "have serious military and political repercussions".

Helsinki shrugged this off as a warning it had heard before.

Four Russian fighter jets violate Swedish airspace: military
Stockholm (AFP) March 2, 2022 - The Swedish Armed Forces said Wednesday that four Russian fighter jets had entered Sweden's air space to the east of the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

While Russian incursions of the Nordic nation's airspace happen fairly regularly, Wednesday's event was treated with increased scrutiny given Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Against the background of the current situation we are taking the incident very seriously," Chief of Sweden's Air Force Carl-Johan Edstrom said in a statement.

According to the statement the "violation" was brief but that Swedish Jas 39 Gripen jets had been scrambled to document and photograph the two Su-24 and two Su-27 fighter jets.

The war in Ukraine has also got the Scandinavian country to up its awareness and on Tuesday Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that the government would strive to speed up the country's rearmament.

After the end of the Cold War, Sweden slashed military spending. It was only after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 that parliament agreed on a turnaround.

Sweden reintroduced mandatory military service in 2017 and reopened its garrison on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea in January 2018.

In October of 2020, it bumped up defence spending by 40 percent with an extra 27 billion Swedish kronor ($2.8 billion, 2.5 billion euros) to be added to the defence budget from 2021 to 2025.

Sweden is not a NATO member, but cooperates closely with the alliance.

However, like in neighbouring Finland, the debate around NATO membership has been reignited in recent weeks.

According to a poll by public broadcaster SVT last Friday support for joining NATO is historically high in Sweden at 41 percent.

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Russian invasion of Ukraine upends international relations
Washington (AFP) March 2, 2022
Russia's war against Ukraine is a week old, but its consequences are already reverberating across the globe: it has upended international relations, left Moscow isolated, united a previously divided West, and raised the specter of a nuclear standoff. - Russia, a 'pariah' state - Moscow's offensive marks a turning point for the whole world. Above all, Russia's attack shattered "the hope that post-Cold War Europe would be spared a large-scale land war," said Ali Wyne, Senior Analyst with Euras ... read more