Traffic into Finland across its southeastern border with Russia was busy on Friday, the border guard told Reuters, adding that the number of Russians who entered the previous day was more than double the number who arrived the week before.
Finland is considering barring most Russians from entering as traffic arriving from its eastern neighbour โintensifiedโ on Thursday following President Vladimir Putinโs order for a partial military mobilisation.
โThis morning it remains busy โฆ maybe increasing a little bit from yesterday,โ a spokesperson for the border guard said early on Friday.
About 7,000 people entered from Russia on Thursday, some 6,000 of them Russian, meaning a 107% increase compared with the same day a week earlier, according to the border guard.
Three people had sought asylum on Thursday. None had the week before, it said.
Finnish land border crossings have remained among the few entry points into Europe for Russians after a string of countries shut both physical frontiers and their air space to Russian planes in response to Russiaโs invasion of Ukraine.
Fridayโs queue was longest at the busy Vaalimaa crossing with cars lining up for about 500 metres, which was longer than on Thursday, the spokesperson said. Lines were also โlonger than normalโ at the second-biggest Nuijamaa crossing.
