President of Finland: Kyiv should not put forward withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine as a condition for starting negotiations

Ukraine should not demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory in order to start peace talks with Moscow, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said.

‘In our opinion, the path to peace is clear: Russia must leave. But you cannot see this conclusion as a precondition. We need to convince the Global South that Russia is pursuing a policy of imperialism,’ Stubb said in an interview with Le Monde.

‘Zelenskyy is playing his cards right. From the very beginning, he wanted to take the initiative in the discussion. Now the ball is in Russia's court. Ukraine and Zelenskyy are in a much stronger position than they were two months ago. They are getting the help and weapons they need to maintain their positions. We are no longer in the situation of near despair that we were in in the spring with the blocking of American aid and Europe's difficulties in delivering equipment to Kyiv. There is no Russian breakthrough either. russia, according to our information, is not moving forward, and its losses are even greater than before. putin thought that the West would get tired of the war. He thought he could wait for the American elections. But he was wrong,’ the Finnish president said.

‘Starting negotiations does not mean that you are going to make concessions. For this process to be successful, Zelenskyy needs four elements. The first one concerns the territories currently occupied by Russia, and the withdrawal of (Russian) troops will be the only solution. Next, Ukraine needs security guarantees. This is where we can help through bilateral agreements and a possible path to NATO and, of course, the European Union. Third, prosecution and fair punishment for Russian war criminals. Finally, Zelenskyy needs support to rebuild the country,’ said Alexander Stubb.

At the same time, China and other countries of the Global South should also be involved in the discussion of peace in Ukraine, the President of Finland stressed. In his opinion, China can do a lot to end the war, ‘since it has a strong position against Russia’.

‘If Xi Jinping wanted to stop the war, he could call Putin and say ‘Enough is enough’,’ Stubb explained.

At the same time, the Finnish president admitted that he did not know how Russia would behave if negotiations began.

‘I have stopped trying to understand what Russia is going to do, because in most cases our predictions are wrong,’ he said.

The first peace summit on Ukraine was held in Switzerland on 15-16 June. It was attended by more than 90 countries and organisations, but Russia was not invited to the event. The summit resulted in a communiqué signed by the majority of participants.

According to Bloomberg, Ukraine is planning to hold the second world summit before the US presidential election in early November. Russia is to be invited to the event. The Kremlin said that Russia is ready to discuss a peace plan with Ukraine, but it is important to understand what will be discussed at the summit.