WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Finland’s leader says it must give more weapons and support to Ukraine to ensure it wins its war against Russia.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin made the comments Wednesday in Auckland on the first-ever visit by a Finnish prime minister to New Zealand and Australia. Among the aims of the visit are improving diplomatic relations and trade ties.
“We need hard power when it comes to Ukraine,” Marin told reporters when asked what soft-power influence smaller countries like Finland and New Zealand could exert.
“They need weapons, they need financial support, they need humanitarian support, and we need to also make sure that all the refugees fleeing from Ukraine are welcomed to Europe,” Marin said.
Since the war began, both Finland and Sweden have abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied to join NATO. Both countries are still seeking endorsement from Turkey.
Marin said the war felt very concrete for Finland due to the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border it shares with Russia. She said Finland had already given 10 shipments of weapons to Ukraine.
“We have to make sure that they will win,” Marin said.
She said Western countries also needed to ensure sanctions were “harder and harder against Russia” because the war was affecting everyone, not only the innocent civilians dying in Ukraine but also people worldwide with higher energy prices.