HELSINKI — Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed his real intentions in Ukraine by bombing civilian energy infrastructure after telling Donald Trump that Moscow would stop such attacks, said Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
The only real solution to deter Moscow, Stubb told POLITICO on Wednesday, was to “militarize Ukraine to its teeth.”
The Finnish president was speaking after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Helsinki, one day after Trump held a two-hour phone conversation with Putin. Despite agreeing to a pause on attacking energy infrastructure, Russia unleashed a barrage of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine after the call, including against civilian and energy targets.
“As someone who’s mediated the ceasefire in Georgia in 2008, I can say this is a fairly typical Putin tactic,” Stubb said in an interview. “We have an aggressor who says he wants a ceasefire and peace, but refuses to commit.
“And I think yesterday’s phone conversation between Trump and Putin was a step in the right direction, but we are now seeing the true face of Putin,” he added.
Asked what sort of pressure would ultimately convince Putin to stop his attacks on Ukraine, Stubb said: “Deterrence — which is based on militarizing Ukraine to its teeth.” He also cited future membership in the European Union and in NATO.
Ahead of a leaders’ gathering in Brussels this week, the Finnish president also urged EU countries to ramp up pressure on Moscow by bolstering sanctions, seizing frozen Russian assets and continuing financial support to Kyiv. “It’s very important now to get a message from Europe that the military, political and economic support continues,” he said.
However, he lamented the fact that a plan proposed by top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas to deliver up to €40 billion in military aid to Ukraine had failed to gather enough support in the European Council to win approval by leaders.
“It’s my understanding that the [Kallas] package in the making did not cross the finish line today, and I hope that heads of state and government will be able to salvage it,” he said.
During a news conference at the Finnish presidential palace, Zelenskyy said he would be speaking directly to Trump later on Wednesday — their first direct contact since an Oval Office blowup last month — before Russia and the United States would resume talks on ending the war in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday afternoon that the call had been “very good,” and the talks were “very much on track.”
Europe, Stubb argued, should have a seat at those talks given the bloc’s huge investment in the war and stake in its outcome. “The two warring parties are Russia and Ukraine, and the mediating parties should be the United States and the European Union,” he said.
“I would encourage Europe to get its act together,” Stubb went on. “For me this means that you have the national security advisers of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, perhaps Poland and then someone from the European institutions” present during negotiations.
As things stand, Europe’s efforts were too “à la carte, too intergovernmental,” he said, adding that he had repeatedly raised this idea with other EU leaders.
Separately, Stubb has proposed the idea of appointing a special envoy on Ukraine — similar to the role he held during Russia’s 2008 war against Georgia. But, he added, “there’s doesn’t seem to be an appetite for this right now.”
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