Finnish Foreign Minister calls on the West not to rule out sending troops to Ukraine

Helsinki, Finland (Svidomi) — The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the West not to oppose the idea of sending troops to Ukraine. However, the country is not currently considering such a possibility.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said that Western countries, including the United States, should not be entirely opposed to the idea of sending troops to Ukraine if conditions there worsen.

"It's important that we not rule everything out for the long term, because we never know how serious the situation becomes. But the Finnish position is clear: We are not right now sending any troops and not willing to discuss that," said Elina Valtonen.

In her words, the most important thing now is that Ukraine's partners continue to send aid to Ukraine. She also pointed out that Finland has spent more than 0.6% of its gross domestic product to support Kyiv.

"Many European countries could do much more," she said.

On February 26, after a summit of 25 European, US and Canadian leaders convened in Paris to discuss aid to Ukraine, Macron said that Paris would do everything possible to support Kyiv. Journalists asked Macron what he meant by his words that his partners were ready to do "everything necessary" to support Kyiv. The French president replied that he did not rule out anything, even the deployment of ground troops, including French troops.

The day before, in an interview with TF1 and France 2, Emmanuel Macron spoke about his opinion on the deployment of French troops to Ukraine and the need for Ukraine to defeat Russia for the sake of peace in Europe. In particular, he said that sending French troops to Ukraine is "a possible option", but "the responsibility for this will lie solely with Russia".