Finnish President urges caution in Ukraine war
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has warned of the high risk of nuclear war in Ukraine, urging Europe to be cautious about the dangers of a wider conflict.
In an interview with The New York Times, Niinisto said that the war in Ukraine is likely to be a long one, and that the Russian invasion in February 2022 was a "wake-up call" for Europe and NATO that is now being forgotten.
"We are in a very sensitive situation," Niinisto said. "Even small things can change the situation a lot, and unfortunately for the worse. That is the risk of a war on such a large scale. The risk of using nuclear weapons is huge."
Niinisto also defended the cautious approach of countries such as the United States and Germany in supplying weapons to Ukraine, particularly for attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea.
"There is a difference between those who are responsible and those who are not... And I would just like to emphasise: if there is an escalation to a major war, it will be a world war, and then the nuclear risk clearly becomes greater," Niinisto said.
Finland became a formal member of NATO on April 4, 2023. The country, which shares a 1,340-kilometre eastern border with Russia, applied to join the North Atlantic Alliance in May 2022 due to the war in Ukraine.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
