Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said that European security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine must include a readiness to fight Russia, The Guardian reported over the weekend.

When asked if European troops would be willing to engage with Russia militarily if it attacked Ukraine after a future peace deal, Stubb said, “That is the idea of security guarantees by definition.”

“Security guarantees in essence are a deterrent and that deterrent has to be plausible, and in order for it to be plausible it has to be strong. And that means also strategic communication, so we’re not making security guarantees into the air, but we’re making real security guarantees and Russia knows that,” the Finnish leader added.

Finland, the UK, France, and other European countries have continued to push for a European troop deployment to Ukraine despite strong objections from Moscow and the risk of nuclear war if the troops end up clashing with Russian forces.

Stubb said that it didn’t matter if Russia was against the proposed security guarantees:

“Russia has absolutely no say in the sovereign decisions of an independent nation state … So for me it’s not an issue will Russia agree or not. Of course they won’t, but that’s not the point,” Stubb said.

Stubb, who took office in 2024, was in the US last month and joined several other European leaders in an Oval Office meeting with President Trump to discuss potential security guarantees for Ukraine.

After the meeting, Trump suggested that he would be willing to back European troops on the ground in Ukraine with air power.

The insistence on a European troop deployment to Ukraine has made a peace deal unlikely, as Moscow has made clear that it’s willing to continue the war until it reaches its goals.

Weeks ago, Finland’s foreign minister provocatively spoke of Russia as a “cancer”…

Disturbing and fanatic language from Finland’s foreign minister: It’s time to “cure the cancer” of Russia pic.twitter.com/tcSVhFuELn

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) September 1, 2025

As negotiations have faltered, the US and its allies have been working to pour more weapons into the proxy war under a new NATO initiative that involves the US’s allies paying for American military equipment that will be sent to Ukraine.