In the month since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the foreign policy of the new US administration has focused on efforts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. This admirable initiative is in its infancy as daily trial balloons are floated. Currently, the Trump White House appears to favor a compromise peace that would establish a neutral Ukraine without clear security guarantees from the country’s Western partners. This formula is sometimes called “Finlandization,” in reference to Finland’s experience as a neutral front line nation during the Cold War.
The Cold War status of Finland reflects the realities of the country’s relationship with the USSR. In the aftermath of the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact and the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet authorities began demanding territory from the Finns. The Kremlin accompanied this with a disinformation campaign referring to Finland’s leaders as a “reactionary fascist clique.”
In November 1939, the Red Army attacked Finland. The Finns fought bravely in a three-month winter war, inflicting over 300,000 Soviet casualties while suffering around 70,000 themselves. Nonetheless, the USSR eventually prevailed and annexed more than ten percent of Finnish territory. This history will sound eerily familiar to today’s Ukrainians.
Voice of Ukraine 