Finnish President: Ukraine War Shapes Europe’s Security, U.S. Leadership

Finland’s President, Alexander Stubb, said on Monday that the war between Ukraine and Russia is not just about Ukrainian independence but also about European security and American leadership.

He added that United States will lose if Russia wins. 

“The war in Ukraine is not only about Ukrainian independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity – it is about European security, and it is about American leadership,” President Alexander Stubb told Reuters in an interview in Ukraine’s capital.

He spoke on the sidelines of an event attended by 11 foreign leaders to commemorate three years since Russia invaded its neighbour, as Kyiv seeks to consolidate support from its allies while its relationship with its largest backer, the U.S., hangs in the balance.

Stubb said he had no concerns about the strength of the alliance, which his country joined in 2023 after decades of balancing its foreign policy between East and West, adding that Finland was a “security provider, not a security consumer”.

“We just doubled NATO’s border with Russia. We have one of the largest militaries in Europe. We’ve always kept our defence expenditure up, and for an obvious reason, and that reason is not Stockholm, it’s Moscow.”

“If there’s an iota or an inkling of understanding that Putin wins this peace, then the United States will have lost, so I think we need to fight this to the bitter end,” he said when asked what his message to Trump would be.

Source: Reuters