Daily SumUp

Finland’s president on Sunday called for strengthening Ukraine's military capabilities and maintaining maximum pressure on Russia before any peace negotiations begin, outlining a detailed three-phase approach to potential peace talks.

“We need to re-arm Ukraine and put maximum pressure on Russia, which means sanctions, which means frozen assets, so that Ukraine begins these negotiations from a position of strength,” Alexander Stubb said at the weekend Munich Security Conference, coming just a few days before the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Finnish leader, drawing from his country's own historical experience with Russia, warned against repeating past mistakes. He highlighted how Finland, during World War II, “maintained independence” but after a Soviet invasion “lost sovereignty to decide which organizations we wanted to be in and then we lost 10% of our territory.”