HELSINKI (Dagbladet): In silence, they have returned. Nightmares and trauma have once again become the everyday life of many of Finland’s war veterans.
Almost 5,000 of them are still alive.
Now they see Ukrainian soldiers experiencing the same thing they did 80 years ago. War. Disorder. Death.
95-year-old Erkki Merikallio has been there herself. Hosted at the front. Fought for the freedom of his country.
For 680 days he fought against Soviet forces during World War II. He said he was 17 years old. Actually, he was only 15 and too young to be drafted by the military.
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He lied to get the opportunity to fight for Finland’s freedom.
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With the struggle against the Soviet superpower also came painful losses.
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Losses and memories he has never managed to forget.
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– I was young. Too young. But I wanted to fight for Finland. When I got to the front and joined the squad, I was asked where I came from. When I told them, they asked if I knew anyone else from the same place. I lit up. It was my big brother. Then came the message. He had been killed two days earlier. He was only 19 years old. It is one of the memories I will never get rid of, says Merikallio.
The only solution
He has never regretted that he enlisted and fought for Finland. Now he is following the situation in Ukraine closely. Every day he reads newspapers and follows the news broadcasts on TV.
He has seen before the pictures of young soldiers fighting for their country. Not just on screen. He was one of them.