Finland is studying Ukraine-style anti-tank defences to reinforce its long border with Russia, the commander of the Finnish Army, Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki, said in an interview with Bloomberg published on Saturday, as Helsinki builds up defences on NATO's eastern flank against what he described as a rapidly rearming Russia.

Source: Bloomberg

In the war in Ukraine, Kyiv's forces have used extensive defensive lines and anti-tank obstacles to slow attackers, and neither side has found a reliable way to break through them and restore large-scale movement and manoeuvre, Välimäki said, according to Bloomberg's reporting of the interview.

Source: Bloomberg

A 1,340-kilometre border — half of NATO's land frontier with Russia

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (about 830-mile) border with Russia, roughly half of NATO's entire land frontier with that country, so Helsinki must work out how structures similar to those used in Ukraine would function in harsh northern weather, Bloomberg reported.

Source: BytesEU (Bloomberg)

"Conditions in Finland are more challenging," Välimäki said. "If we build fortifications and dig anti-tank ditches or obstacles as deep as those in Ukraine, how long does it take before our environment turns them into artificial ponds?"

Source: Bloomberg

"Creating a threshold so Russia does not go any further"

Välimäki said Russia has begun rebuilding its military capacity even as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds into a fifth year, and that Finland lacks the ability to prevent that rearming. "Everything we are doing now is about creating a threshold so that Russia does not go any further, whether we are talking about [NATO] or Finland," he said.

Source: Bloomberg

Ukrainian reporting of the same interview said Välimäki described Russia delivering battle tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery systems to its military storage facilities, and pointed to a new Russian garrison being built near Petrozavodsk, reported to house between 4,000 and 6,000 troops. Those details come from Ukrainian outlets summarising the Bloomberg interview and have not been separately confirmed by Finland's military.

Source: UNITED24 Media

Finland is already carrying out an overhaul of its land forces that is due to run through the end of the 2030s, covering equipment, force structure, readiness and the capacity to sustain combat operations, Bloomberg reported.

Source: BytesEU (Bloomberg)

The fence that is already standing

The anti-tank study sits on top of a barrier Finland has already built: a 200-kilometre border fence along the eastern frontier, completed in September 2026 after about four years of construction at a cost of €356 million (yaani about €0.36 billion, or roughly 35.6 crore euro), according to reporting on the fence's completion. The photograph at the top of this story shows that fence, with its camera towers, running through forest on the eastern border.

Source: UNITED24 Media

What happens next: Välimäki's remarks describe a study, not a construction decision — no order to dig Ukraine-style ditches or raise anti-tank obstacles along the border has been announced. The question Helsinki is weighing, on his account, is whether fortifications designed for Ukraine's steppe can survive Finland's lakes, marshes and freeze-thaw winters at all.