Finland strongly condemned Russia's missile strikes on civilians on Monday, according to a tweet posted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
"Indiscriminate targeting of civilians is a war crime. Finland will continue our firm support to Ukraine. Russia must stop its illegal invasion and leave Ukraine," the tweet read.
Russian missiles hit cities across Ukraine on Monday morning, in attacks that claimed lives and destroyed infrastructure. Explosions were reported in the capital Kyiv, Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in Ukraine's west, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east, news service Reuters reported on Monday.
Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto (Green), told Yle that Russia's missile attacks on Ukrainian cities were an escalation of the war and — in light of suspicions that the attacks were targeted at civilians, an indication that war crimes have been committed.
"These attacks by Russia on Ukraine are quite an escalation of the war, and there is particular concern that they seem to be targeting civilians. Bombing civilian targets fulfils the definition of war crimes," Haavisto told Yle on Monday.
He called the initial reports about civilian targets to be very worrying, adding that he suspects the missile attacks were a response to the Crimean Bridge explosion over the weekend, which Russia said was a terrorist attack.
"Of course this could be a reaction to the Crimean Bridge attack. But the fact that [Russia's] attacks are now targeting civilians is particularly cruel," Haavisto said, adding that the ministry was waiting to hear more about the situation.
"But it seems that there are and could be large numbers of civilian victims," Haavisto said.
Russia's missile strikes will put pressure on the international community to impose new sanctions on it and likely encourage countries to send more aid to Ukraine, according to the minister.
He noted that Ukraine has asked the international community for anti-aircraft defence systems and that countries would surely treat the requests with more understanding in the future.
Haavisto said he thinks there is consensus among EU countries to increase sanction, adding that the government has supported further tightening sanctions.