Finland's President on Ukraine military aid: We need to find a lot of different streams that come into the river
President of Finland Alexander Stubb (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
The West needs to find numerous streams to aid Ukraine, including bilateral, according to President of Finland Alexander Stubb.
"Finland, we are a fairly small country, but we're actually for GDP per capita, the sixth biggest donor. We've given (to Ukraine - ed.) 2 billion euros in military aid and 700 million in humanitarian development aid. I went to Kyiv with a package of 188 million euros of military stuff, actually including air defense and heavy artillery," he said.
Stubb emphasized that these are practical things that Ukrainians need.
"So, what we need to do is we need to find a lot of different streams that come into the river. And the streams can come either bilaterally, they can come from the European Union, as they're coming right now. They can even come from NATO, and they certainly need to come from the United States," he stressed.
The President of Finland urged the US Congress to approve aid to Ukraine.
"I just call upon the American Congress to release $60 billion. It is urgently necessary. What we're basically playing with here is Ukrainians' lives. And I don't think our domestic policy should be involved in Ukrainian lives. They need help, and they need it now," he added.
Aid to Ukraine from the US
The US Congress has been unable to approve new funding for aid to Ukraine for several months. Therefore, the supply of weapons from the US has practically ceased.
The US Senate has already passed a bill providing around $60 billion in aid to Ukraine on a grant basis. To put the document into effect, support from the House of Representatives is needed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson still refuses to bring such an initiative to a vote. He has repeatedly stated that he wants to consider aid to Ukraine in connection with money for protecting the American border from migrants.
At the same time, Republican members of Congress are increasingly supportive of the idea of providing part of the aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine is ready for any option that unlocks funding for aid from the US.
