ICAN Warns Finland's Nuclear Weapons Ban Lift Risks 'Nuclear Winter'

GENEVA, April 27. /TASS/. Finland’s plans to lift the ban on the import and deployment of nuclear weapons increase the risk of their use and the onset of a “nuclear winter” in the region, the coordinator of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Florian Eblenkamp, told TASS in response to a request to comment on Helsinki’s intentions. According to Eblenkamp, more and more nuclear weapons in Europe “don't make the region safer,” their number growing merely “increases the risk of miscalculation, accident, or deliberate use.” For this reason, ICAN “is critical of the Finnish government's proposal to lift its nuclear weapons ban,” which has been in effect in the country since the 1980s. The organization called Helsinki’s plans “irresponsible,” pointing out that “even a limited nuclear exchange would trigger a nuclear winter that would devastate Finland, Russia, and the wider region.” “We stand with the Finnish people, a large majority of whom oppose nuclear weapons being stationed in their country,” Eblenkamp emphasized. “Whichever state advances nuclear weapons in Europe, it is ordinary people collectively and beyond national borders who bear the ultimate risk,” he added. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is a coalition of non-governmental organizations founded in 2007 in Melbourne, Australia. Its goal is complete nuclear disarmament. In 2017, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.