Finnish president urges EU to appoint negotiation team, special envoy for Ukraine

He stated this in an interview with France 24 during the Coalition of the Willing summit in Paris.

"We (Europeans) need two things. One is a negotiating team, just like the Americans, the Ukrainians and the Russians have. And they had that in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And then probably eventually we need a special envoy who would be kind of in charge and coordinating everything, because right now, although we have really good leadership coming from France and the UK, there is still that question, 'OK, who is the European envoy? Who should I call?’" Stubb said.

He also welcomed the Franco-British initiative to create the Coalition of the Willing in support of Ukraine. The Finnish President called it a way to bring Britain back into Europe and re-engage France in constructive cooperation with the UK.

“I think our mindset is very clear. We want Ukraine to win this war. We want them to retain their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The French and the and the Brits took the lead. And the rest of us are following and being engaged as best we can,” the Finnish leader stated.

He shared his view on the conditions under which the Coalition of the Willing forces could potentially be deployed in Ukraine. According to him, the first stage is a ceasefire, followed by an actual peace agreement.

“So for the ceasefire you need some kind of a reassurance. That means that you can help in the air, on the sea, perhaps on land. That's the type of planning that our military staff are doing right now. And the political decisions that we take here in Paris are part of that first phase. The second phase is when peace has been maintained, settled and agreed. That's when you put in crisis management troops or peacekeeping troops on the basis of an international mandate. So these are two quite separate things. The ceasefire is still a state of war, whereas a peace agreement, that's when peace begins,” Stubb explained.

At the same time, he was skeptical about current ceasefire initiatives, emphasizing that events now follow Russia’s classic negotiation tactics. According to Stubb, steps such as a ceasefire in the Black Sea and halting attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are steps in the right direction.

“But never underestimate the capacity of Russians to break a ceasefire. They'll continue to do it. We need a full ceasefire and that needs to be monitored,” the Finnish President stressed.

• The President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, believes that increasing sanctions would lead Russia to halt its aggression against Ukraine and seek peace talks.