Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated that Finland would never recognize the occupied Crimean Peninsula, nor Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as part of Russia.
Stubb made the remarks on the Today program on BBC Radio 4, Ukrinform reports.
According to Stubb, “the only ones who can decide on the land issue are the Ukrainians themselves”. He also expressed his commitment to ensuring Ukraine’s EU and NATO membership after the war.
“I want to make sure that Ukraine, when this war is over, retains its independence, retains its sovereignty – in other words becomes an EU member state and hopefully a NATO member – and also maintains its territorial integrity. That is what we are all fighting for right now,” Stubb said.
The Finnish President called U.S. President Donald Trump the “only one who can force” Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table over the war in Ukraine.
Stubb recounted that Trump once asked him whether he could trust Putin, to which Stubb replied no.
“What we need is not so much the power of the carrot to convince Russia to the negotiating table, it’s more of the stick that will bring them. So. you have to force Russia to come to the negotiating table for peace and that’s the deal President Trump is trying to make,” he said.
Stubb noted that Trump had offered a “carrot” to Putin during their meeting in Alaska but added that, judging by the language the U.S. President has used recently, “there has been more stick”.
Stubb expressed optimism about Trump’s abilities, suggesting that peace negotiations have advanced more in the past eight months of Trump’s second term than in the previous three years.
He hopes to see results from a two-phase peace process — a ceasefire to halt killings and a broader peace process — in the coming days and weeks.
“We’ll keep on working at it. The key is to engage and try to find solutions and be pragmatic,” he said.
As previously reported, after a phone call with Putin on Thursday, Trump announced plans to meet him in Budapest to discuss ending the “inglorious” war between Russia and Ukraine.
Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine