Monday, 5 September 2022

Joining NATO, Joining The Cause: Finnish Aid To Ukraine

By Jakub Janovsky, naalsio26, Aloha, Dan and Kemal

Finland is renowned for being the happiest country in the world, having the world's best education system, coolest (former) Prime Minister (Sanna Marin), and not feeling the need to brag about help given to other countries. The latter has made an accurate analysis of Finnish military support to Ukraine relatively difficult. What is known is that Finland pledged its first shipment of military aid already by February 27. Since then, at least fifteen more batches of military aid have reached Ukraine. [1] By May 2023, military aid from Finland was worth more than €1.1 billion. [2]

Interestingly, it would take until August 2022 until the first images of Finnish-delivered armament in use with Ukrainian forces surfaced. [3] [4] These consisted of 120mm 120 KRH 85 92 heavy mortars and 23mm 23 ITK 61 (ZU-23) anti-aircraft guns drawn from the reserve stocks of the Finnish Defence Forces. As Finland did announce the contents of the first two batches of military aid pledged in February, it is known that 1500 66 Kes (M72 LAW) anti-tank weapons and 2500 assault rifles along with 2000 helmets and 2000 bulletproof vests have also been supplied. [5] [6]

The following list attempts to keep track of military equipment delivered or pledged to Ukraine by Finland. The entries below are sorted by armament category (with a flag denoting the country of origin), and due to the confidential nature of Finland's weapons deliveries they can serve only as a lower bound to the total volume of weaponry delivered. Medical supplies are not included in this list. This list will be updated as further military support is uncovered.

(Click on the vehicle or equipment type to get a picture of them)

Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs)

Sisu XA-185s [September 2022]

Small Arms

12.7mm 12,7 ItKK 96 Heavy Machine Guns [September 2022]
2500 Assault Rifles [March 2022]

Ammunition

155mm 155 tkr88 Artillery Rounds [May 2022]
120mm JVA 1571 Mortar Grenades [Before October 2022]
Sirpalekäsikranaatti M/50 Hand Grenades [Before October 2022]
JVA 0406 sahte 80-16 Smoke Grenades [Before February 2023 ]
150.000 Rounds Of 7.62mm Ammunition [March 2022] (For the Finnish-delivered assault rifles)
''Ammunition'' [To be delivered]