Finland is studying Ukraine-style anti-tank obstacles to strengthen its 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, as its army chief warns that Moscow has already begun rebuilding the military capacity it has spent in Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki, commander of the Finnish Army, said in an interview with Bloomberg that Finland is examining how the defensive lines Kyiv built during the war could be adapted to its own terrain. Ukrainian forces have used extensive lines of ditches, concrete obstacles and fortified positions to slow Russian attacks, and neither side has found a reliable way to break through them and restore large-scale movement, he said.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, about half of NATO's entire land frontier with the country. That geography makes the question urgent, but the answer is not straightforward. The Finnish landscape is wetter and colder than the Ukrainian steppe, and Välimäki warned that defences copied directly from Ukraine might not survive a Nordic winter.

"Conditions in Finland are more challenging," he 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?"

The general said Russia has already started to replenish its stocks, with T-90 tanks, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and 2S19 self-propelled howitzers being delivered to storage sites even while the war in Ukraine continues. Finland cannot prevent that rearmament, he said, so its aim is deterrence: convincing Moscow that an attack would fail.

"Everything we are doing now is about creating a threshold so that Russia does not go any further, whether we are talking about the alliance or Finland," Välimäki said.

Finland kept conscription and large territorial defence reserves after the Cold War, even as many European countries cut their forces. Despite a population of just 5.6 million, its military can call on about 280,000 troops in wartime. Välimäki said that when the war in Ukraine began, Finland improved its readiness, put 60,000 people through refresher training over two years and quickly began replenishing stocks of critical equipment. In September 2026 it completed a 200-kilometre border fence along parts of its eastern frontier.

The country is now carrying out an overhaul of its land forces that will run through the end of the 2030s, covering equipment, force structure, readiness and the capacity to sustain combat. Finland will spend at least as much on the land forces overhaul as on its ongoing navy and air force programmes combined, which have total funding of 11.6 billion euros. As part of the drive, it is expanding its fleet of South Korean-built K9 self-propelled howitzers, modernising its heavy rocket launchers to fire almost 500 kilometres and preparing to replace its BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles.

Air power is being renewed at the same time. Finland has begun replacing its F/A-18 Hornets with 64 F-35A fighters, with the first aircraft already delivered, and it has ordered Israel's David's Sling missile-defence system.

Välimäki also pointed to a hard lesson from Ukraine: shooting down incoming missiles and drones is not enough. Under NATO's Eastern Flank Deterrence Line concept, defenders must also be able to strike the launchers before they fire. "For Finns, this is a difficult issue, because it means hitting targets on the Russian side," he said.

He rejected the idea that drones and new technology have made traditional weapons obsolete, saying drones are only one element of the modern battlefield. Ukraine has also shown the need to replenish equipment and ammunition during a long war, and Välimäki wants domestic production that can be scaled up rapidly in a crisis.

"What I would like Finland to have is the ability to scale for mass-production in large volumes — production for readiness and daily training consumption that can be maintained in peacetime and scaled up tenfold in crisis and conflict," he said.

The push reflects a basic constraint on how a country of five million people can fight a much larger neighbour. "We do not want a war of attrition," Välimäki said. "We are a country of five million people, and we cannot operate on that logic."