Finland's President Alexander Stubb has urged European leaders to drop the framing of Ukraine as a country that only needs help, and instead start asking what Ukraine can give Europe, Yle reports.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Czech President Petr Pavel in Prague on 4 May, Stubb said: "Instead of talking about what Ukraine needs from Europe, perhaps we should discuss what we in Europe need from Ukraine."
Cooperation with Kyiv, he argued, has to be built on the assumption that Ukraine will remain a European state once the war ends, and that Russia will remain the principal security threat to Europe. That, Stubb said, is why he has backed Ukraine's accession to both the EU and NATO from the outset.
What Ukraine brings to the table
Pointing to the battlefield, the Finnish president said no Western military matches Ukraine's capacity for modern warfare. "There is no army in Europe or the United States, by the way, that is capable of waging modern war the way Ukraine is doing now," he said, as quoted by Ukrinform.
That capability, Stubb said, is one of the reasons Ukraine is currently helping countries in the Middle East — a reversal of the usual aid relationship.
The Finnish president also laid out the manpower picture: Europe has roughly 2 mn troops under arms, Russia about 1.3 mn, and Ukraine 800,000.
NATO, Russia, and the United States
Stubb separately said in recent days that he sees no reason for Russia to test NATO's Article 5 in the near term, though he expects Moscow to keep up hybrid operations against the Alliance.
He also acknowledged a shift coming from Washington. "The US administration has other ways to project power. The use of these capabilities differs from previous administrations," Stubb said.
The Finnish president arrived in Prague on 4 May for a two-day state visit. His program also includes meetings with the deputy speaker of the Czech Senate, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and the Czech prime minister.
