Finland calls on EU to be ready to ‘fight’ Russia
Western European countries must be ready to fight Russia if they offer security guarantees to Kiev as part of a potential settlement of the Ukraine conflict, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said.
In an interview with The Guardian released on Saturday, Stubb stressed that if the West decides to provide any assurances to Kiev, they should stick to the notion that “security guarantees in essence are a deterrent.”
Asked if the guarantees would mean that European countries are saying they would be ready to engage militarily with Russia in case of an attack on Ukraine, the president replied: “That is the idea of security guarantees by definition,” adding that they would be meaningless without real force behind them.
He added that Russia should not have any say in the matter. “So for me it’s not an issue [whether] Russia will agree [to guarantees being given to Ukraine] or not. Of course they won’t, but that’s not the point,” he added.
Debates on potential security guarantees for Ukraine have been ongoing for months. Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that 26 countries pledged to form a “reassurance force” (land, sea, and air troops) to be deployed to Ukraine only after a peace deal or ceasefire is concluded. Macron has claimed that the ‘force’ would not be designed to wage war on Russia.
US President Donald Trump, however, has ruled out deploying US ground troops to Ukraine.
Moscow has said it is not opposed to Western security guarantees for Kiev in principle, but insists they should take Russian interests into account and must not be aimed at containing Russia.
Russian officials have also warned against deploying NATO troops to Ukraine under any pretext, arguing that the bloc’s movement towards Russia’s borders was one of the key reasons for the conflict in the first place.
Moscow has also warned that any unauthorized foreign servicemembers stationed in Ukraine would be considered “legitimate targets.”
