 The Soviet move to extend the front required Finns to extend their line as well which set the stage for the battle of Ilomantsi fought further to the north.The Finnish defense had prevented the Red Army from advancing from the north side of Lake Ladoga into the battle stages of the Karelian Isthmus.If the Red Army would not have been stopped here, the Finnish forces fighting on the Karelian Isthmus would have been left between two Soviet armies on the narrow Isthmus, in the area limited by the Gulf of Finland in the south, and Lake Ladoga in the north.