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Finland Begins Large-Scale Military Exercises Focused On Rapid Readiness Near Russian Border.
Finland has launched large-scale military exercises involving around 15,000 personnel across its southern and eastern regions, including areas near the Russian border. The drills mark a shift toward full wartime readiness and deeper integration with NATO forces less than three years after joining the Alliance.
On 30 October 2025, Finland announced that it will deploy around 15,000 soldiers, conscripts, reservists and active personnel for a broad series of early-winter military exercises stretching from Southern Finland to the northern training areas close to the Russian border, as reported by the Finnish Defence Forces. Coming less than three years after Helsinki joined NATO and at a time when the war in Ukraine continues to generate new battlefield lessons, the decision signals that Finland is now training for the rapid generation of wartime forces on its own territory, together with Allied detachments. The new regional command headquarters in Mikkeli, barely 140 km from Russia, gives this exercise cycle a clear operational focus and will be closely watched in Moscow, which has long regarded southeastern Finland as a sensitive area. The announcement also fits into the broader trend of Finland internationalising its training calendar and opening national ranges to partners.
The Finnish Defence Forces have launched a 15,000-strong early-winter drill across the country to test rapid wartime mobilization and deepen NATO integration near the Russian border (Picture Source: Finnish MoD)
The first strategic implication is that Helsinki is shifting from demonstrating readiness to rehearsing an actual defence of the country in winter conditions, with forces that mirror the structure Finland would use in a crisis. By bringing together conscripts about to enter the reserve, refresher-training reservists, standing Army units, Border Guard elements and Allied troops, the Finnish Defence Forces are testing the core of Finland’s total-defence model: fast mobilisation, immediate integration of foreign reinforcements, and command and control that works even when the operating environment is contested. The establishment of a new regional command in Mikkeli during the same period strengthens the eastern command architecture and shortens decision-making chains for operations conducted just west of the Russian border; this is a clear signal that Finland intends to manage escalation from its own soil rather than from rear areas only. For NATO, the message is equally important: the Alliance can now plan to use Finnish territory as a fully prepared forward operating area in the Nordic-Baltic theatre, without losing time to adapt to national procedures.
Operationally, the exercise series is built around several demanding events that together recreate a national-level defensive campaign. In the south, the Guard Jaeger Regiment will lead Lively Sentry 25 from 27.11 to 4.12, mobilising more than 6,500 soldiers, including about 4,000 conscripts, 1,700 reservists and some 850 professional personnel, supported by more than 900 vehicles. The scenario includes a mechanised battlegroup conducting an assault in a built-up area supported by urban jaegers, an evolution clearly inspired by observations from Ukrainian cities, and aimed at proving that Finnish brigade-level units retain the ability to defeat an armoured attack on their own territory. In Vuosanka, the multinational live exercise Northern Axe 25 will gather some 3,000 troops, among them about 70 British soldiers, and will for the first time assign a Finnish regional company of reservists a combat mission inside a brigade-level LIVEX. This is a notable step: it means reservists are no longer trained only for static defence, but for offensive, delaying and night operations alongside Allies.
Further north, the Rovajärvi training area, the largest in Europe, will host a succession of drills that are all designed to stress combined arms under early-winter conditions. Northern Spike 25 will harmonise anti-tank missile training across the Army; Northern Strike 225, led by the Kainuu Brigade and joined by a Polish contingent, will build a fires-heavy regional element able to conduct live artillery missions at several command levels; then Lapland Steel 25 will bring together Finnish, Swedish and British troops to validate joint operating in the Arctic environment and to prove that Nordic and UK units can be plugged into Finnish plans at short notice. The presence of Swedish troops here is politically and militarily meaningful: it shows that Nordic interoperability is now practised on Finnish soil and not only during allied drills such as Nordic Response. It also means that, in a crisis, traffic flows from Sweden into Lapland and on to the Kola-facing areas can be secured by forces that already know the ground.
A key element of the whole package is air and air-defence integration. The Utti Jaeger Regiment will conduct air operations across Finland in parallel with the ground manoeuvres, ensuring that special operations, aviation assets and ground units work from a single picture. At Lohtaja, the multinational ground-based air defence exercise ADEX Mallet Strike 2/25 will bring together up to 1,000 soldiers from all Finnish brigade-level units that train on air defence, joined by British and Swedish units, to practise in a dense, electronic-warfare-heavy environment. This corresponds directly to lessons drawn from the Ukrainian front, where Russian and Ukrainian forces have both used jamming, drones and complex air threats to degrade ground units. By rehearsing multinational GBAD on its own ranges, Finland is effectively telling Allies that it can host and protect their air-defence assets during a crisis and that it is ready to contribute to a layered Nordic-Baltic air shield.
This early-winter 2025 exercise entity therefore marks a qualitative step in Finland’s post-NATO military posture: the country is no longer content with single-service or demonstration drills but is validating the wartime competence of 15,000 people liable for service, on the terrain and in the season where a real contingency with Russia would most likely occur. By tying these manoeuvres to a new headquarters in Mikkeli and by inviting UK, Swedish and Polish detachments to operate under Finnish command, Helsinki is embedding Allied defence of Finland into its national plans and reducing the margin for ambiguity in the region. For Russia, this means any attempt to test NATO’s northern flank would immediately meet a combined Finnish-Allied force already trained together; for the Alliance, it confirms that Finland is not a buffer, but a forward operating base able to mobilise, fight and sustain in winter.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.