Editing Sword Scabbard Declaration (section)

==Diplomatic consequences==
Immediately after the Axis invasion, Finland officially declared itself neutral in relation to the conflict. However, German minelayers, which had been hiding in the Finnish archipelago, laid two large minefields across the [[Gulf of Finland]]. Later the same night, German bombers flew along the Gulf of Finland to [[Leningrad]] and mined its harbor and the river [[Neva]]. On the return trip, these bombers landed on the [[Utti]] airfield for refueling. After three days, early on the morning of 25 June, preemptive Soviet air raids were launched on Finnish towns, airfields and industrial centers. The country was at war with its larger neighbor once again. This [[Continuation War]] was initially defensive for Finland, but with his nearly immediate restatement of his Sword Scabbard Declaration, Mannerheim lost the possibility to brand it a [[defensive war]], or even as a war of [[revanchism]] to regain the territory lost in the [[Winter War]], where one-eighth of the Finnish populace lived. Gradually, the Continuation War became, in the eyes of some, a [[war of conquest]], to capture land that had not historically belonged to Finland.

For large segments of the public, both in Finland and in other democratic countries, there was a huge difference between a defensive war and a [[war of aggression]]. In the Winter War Finland had the sympathy of  virtually the whole world (with the exception of [[Nazi Germany]] and the aggressor, the Soviet Union). The chief reason was that Finland, in international opinion, was unjustly attacked by a much larger power.  In the Continuation War, on the other hand, Finland was partly an aggressor in the eyes of some, attacking the Soviet Union alongside the Axis invasion. This badly damaged Finland's image in the eyes of the Churchill government and eventually caused the formerly sympathetic [[United Kingdom|Britain]] to declare war on Finland in December 1941.
<!-- adding some more consequences would be nice at this point-->