Finnish soldier using a NBC suit and a Nazi helmet, somewhere in the woods of Finland. The Continuation War, lead after the Winter War, lasted from 1941 to 1944. Germany found a great opportunity of fighting the USSR after having launched the Operation Barbarossa, and suddenly decided to provide Finland with critical material support and military cooperation. The first to attack were, nevertheless, the Soviets, with an air offensive to Finland on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, and captured East Karelia by September 1941. The Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, regaining all the land lost in the previous years. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, they decided to instead protect their borders at all cost, engaging in several air fights against the Russians. During this air campaigns, Soviet air forces began conducting air raids over Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. Eventually, in mid-1944, the Soviet strategic offensive drove the Finns from most of the territories they had gained during the war, but the Finnish Army later brought the offensive to a standstill in July 1944. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September. 70,000 Finnish and German soldiers perished in the war, in front of c. 305,000 Soviets.