Day 830 of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is underway. On the wPolitce.pl website, we report events on the front for you.

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Sunday, June 2, 2024

00:01. Head of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: In the long term, Russia has no chance of winning the war with Ukraine

“We are quite optimistic that in the long term Russia has no way of winning this war,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, summarizing the decision of a meeting of diplomatic heads of NATO countries in Prague.

However, he acknowledged that “in the short and medium term, Russia needs a lot to understand this.” Quoted on Saturday by the daily Iltalehti, he referred to the long-term support mechanism initiated for Ukraine (EUR 40 billion per year), as well as the agreement of key Western countries to attack Russian targets with weapons transferred on its territory, and training programs for the army Ukraine.

If it continues like this, we are in very good shape

– he added.

He noted that if not every NATO country can donate military equipment to Ukraine equally – this is understandable – then those countries can send money to Ukraine, and that support should be divided equally in relation to the country’s GDP.

According to Valtonen, Finland currently has no intention of sending military instructors to Ukraine.

Right now we’re not ready or even discussing it, but we don’t know what the future holds

– he stated.

However, it would be good if some countries would do it

– he admitted.

He noted that any change in American or German attitudes regarding the use of weapons transferred to Ukraine would be “significant.” For Ukraine’s armed forces to defend the front line, they must have the right to attack Russian military targets with Western weapons on its territory, he stressed.

He recalled that Finland itself, when transferring military equipment and weapons to Ukraine, did not impose territorial restrictions on their use. This was also confirmed by Finnish President Alexander Stubb who took part in a meeting of Nordic leaders with Volodymyr Zelensky in Stockholm on Friday. This Finnish line had been in practice since the early phase of the war, but was not spoken about openly – comments “Helsingin Sanomat”. It should be noted that the Finnish authorities do not disclose – for security reasons – the contents of the military packages transferred to Ukraine, and the imposed “restrictions” on the use of weapons mainly apply to countries providing long-range weapons.

ed/PAP