Editing Operation Barbarossa (section)

===Northeast Finland===
{{Main|Continuation War}}
[[File:JR45 crossing Murmansk railway.jpg|thumb|Finnish soldiers crossing the Murmansk Railway, 1941]]
During German-Finnish negotiations, Finland had demanded to remain neutral unless the Soviet Union attacked them first. Germany therefore sought to provoke the Soviet Union into an attack on Finland. After Germany launched Barbarossa on 22 June, German aircraft used Finnish air bases to attack Soviet positions. The same day the Germans launched [[Operation Rentier]] and occupied the [[Pechengsky District|Petsamo Province]] at the Finnish-Soviet border. Simultaneously Finland proceeded to [[Operation Kilpapurjehdus|remilitarise the neutral Åland Islands]]. Despite these actions the Finnish government insisted via diplomatic channels that they remained a neutral party, but the Soviet leadership already viewed Finland as an ally of Germany. Subsequently, the Soviets proceeded to launch a massive bombing attack on 25 June against all major Finnish cities and industrial centres, including Helsinki, Turku and Lahti. During a night session on the same day the Finnish parliament decided to go to war against the Soviet Union.{{sfnp|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|pp=36, 39–41}}{{sfnp|Mann|Jörgensen|2002|pp=74–76}}

Finland was divided into two operational zones. Northern Finland was the staging area for Army Norway. Its goal was to execute a two-pronged pincer movement on the strategic port of [[Murmansk]], named [[Operation Silver Fox]]. Southern Finland was still under the responsibility of the Finnish Army. The goal of the Finnish forces was, at first, to recapture Finnish Karelia at [[Lake Ladoga]] as well as the Karelian Isthmus, which included Finland's second largest city [[Vyborg|Viipuri]].{{sfnp|Ueberschär|1998|pp=941–944; 974–980}}{{sfnp|Nenye|Munter|Wirtanen|Birks|2016|pp=38–41}}