Sweden And Finland File Application To Join NATO, Snubbing Russia's Aggressive Warnings

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Scandinavia nations Sweden and Finland have filed their applications to join North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

What Happened: On Wednesday, the Secretary-General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that Finland and Sweden had submitted their membership requests to join its ranks.

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Standing alongside the two envoys, with NATO, Finnish and Swedish flags at their backs, Stoltenberg said, "I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO. You are our closest partners."

"All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize," he added.

Why It Matters: Russian President Vladimir Putin — who has been demanding that the alliance should stop expanding toward Russia's borders — has threatened Sweden and Finland with retaliation, including unspecified "military-technical measures," if they move ahead with the plan to join NATO.

Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine war continues for the 83rd day with a series of explosions heard in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. According to UN agencies, over six million refugees have fled Ukraine since the war began on Feb. 24, and another eight million have been internally displaced.