NATO will likely approve their application within a week.
Watch as Russia LOSES IT. Russia shares a 720 mile long border with Finland.
Moscow is only 550 miles from Helsinki, Finland. St. Petersburg is only 180 miles from Helsinki.
Considering that NATO members would include Germany, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Norway... NATO would have near ownership of the Baltic Sea, and 100% ownership of the Gulf of Bothnia (between Sweden and Finland).
NATO would also fully control both the North and South sides of the shipping access straight between the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic, meaning that they can shut it down any time it's necessary. At it's narrowest sections, the ship access way is only 10 miles wide. Between Sweden and Denmark, the water way is only 20 miles wide.
If Finland and Sweden both apply and become NATO members in May... Russia will have to respond.
Think about this another way.
NATO... and especially France... are really nervous about getting hidden people OUT of the underground tunnels at the Mariupol Steel Works facility, unidentified, and have them securely transported to a Western nation. The problem is that NATO has nothing to trade that Russia wants.
What if Sweden and Finland both submit NATO applications? NOW NATO has something that Russia wants very badly. Either Russian troops withdraw from Mariupol and NATO sends in a ship to dock at the Steel Works and retrieve all people who have sheltered in that Steel Works... or else NATO will approve Sweden and Finland joining the military alliance. :>)
If the soldiers are allowed to leave freely and evacuate any weapons and equipment they can transport to the ship... then NATO can agree to not make a decision about Sweden or Finland for at least 2-years.
Then give Putin 24-hours to respond. Take choice A or B... but we need an answer quickly or else the decision is made.