Brit in Finland warns UK unprepared for Russian threat

Nick, 32, moved to Pori, in Finland, in July 2024 to live with his fiancee, Heidi, and now has a nephew there.

The software engineer, who grew up in Staffordshire, told LBC he would “fight for Finland” if Russia invaded.

He argued that Finland is far better prepared for potential war with Russia compared to Britain.

In comparison to the UK’s war preparedness, he said Finland’s “pragmatic approach of quietly preparing for the worst” should be adopted by Brits.

“The shadow of Russia has hung over Finland for its entire existence,” Nick said.

“It is quite a patriotic country by necessity because if it wasn’t it engulfed by Sweden or Russia long ago, so there some level of nationalism and patriotic pride is necessary to the existence.”

This comes as a former Nato general secretary warned Parliament “this country and its people are not safe” against Russian aggression.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who co-wrote the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), said the UK is lacking in ammunition, training, people, logistics, and medical capacity.

In Finland, “education is free, healthcare is almost free, as is dentistry,” he said.

“Things are running pretty smoothly. It’s more understandable why people would want to defend it.”

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Compared to Britain, Finland prepare for potential invasion through “distributed defence” which integrates both military and civilian efforts to ensure national security.

In 2022, Finland had 50,500 civil defence shelters with space for a total of 4.8 million people – for their population of 5.6 million.

In non-war conditions, the defence shelters are often used as sports halls, metro stations and car parks, or storage spaces in residential buildings.

The precondition is that the shelter can be emptied and used within 72 hours.

This comes as Sir Keir Starmer promised to spend a “historic” five per cent of GDP on defence in a bid to show US President Donald Trump that Europe is stepping up to defend Ukraine.

Nick admitted it is difficult to compare the nations as the UK wouldn’t be preparing for a Russian ground invasion, like Finland.

However, a majority of Brits backed slashing the welfare budget in order to fund defence spending, according to research by LBC.

Nick described the invasion siren test the first Monday of each month at 12, nationwide.

He said: “The first few months it used to get to me. Every time I’d be like, ‘what’s going on? Oh my gosh!'”

“Defence is not something people publicise or openly talk about,” he continued.

“The idea is you don’t want to give away positions of these things, but they do exist.”

Nick claimed the arms caches are bunkers are an “open secret” amongst Fins so citizens can mobilise if conflict occurred.

This “constant readiness plan” extends to Finnish National Service as Nick points out “every generation, every single bloke, barring those who’ve had some kind of medical exemption or have been in prison during that time, have done national service.

“So that’s quite an ace to have up your sleeve in terms of preparedness, is everybody from the age of 50 down knows how to fight what they’re doing.”

Conscription in Finland can take the form of military or of civilian service, lasting a period of 165 days, 255 days, or 347 days depending on rank.

Nick argued that Britain could benefit from a national service.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be military in nature,” he said.

“The people that come out of it at 20 or 21 years old, they’ve all got their heads screwed on.

“They know what they’re doing and they’ve had some discipline. They’ve got some skills and kind of a feeling of self worth and pride.”

Finland joined NATO in 2023 amid concerns after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Nick described the panic by some Finnish citizens, as Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the alliance’s expansion is a direct threat to his country’s security.

He describes how some of his acquaintances worried Russia would invade “immediately” in response, “before the ink’s dried on the paper”.

However, Nick believes the NATO alliance would not necessarily protect Finland amid the Ukraine war.

“They’re definitely not going to do World War Three to protect us, but we’ve been dropped significantly lower on the list of great venues for a proxy war.

Despite this, he asserts that Russia may not be looking Finlands way anytime soon.

“Russia tried to bite off more than chew with Ukraine,” he said.

“I think we’re safe. But at the same time, Putin’s probably going to be desperate at some point, so we should prepare for the worst.

“Russia’s looking kind of dangerous in a desperate way,” Nick adds.

“They just want to be Finnish, be marked on the map, and be left alone.”