Foreign countries|Russian invasion
Haavisto said that Ukrainian soldiers might be trained in Finland in the future as well. Tomorrow, Haavisto’s journey continues to the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Bucharest.
Finland may train Ukrainian soldiers in Finland in the future as well, says the foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (green).
It is about the EU’s training program, which is supposed to train about 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers. There are no decisions on the matter yet, as it is being prepared in December.
“The training countries are possibly Germany and Poland, but for some weapon systems it can be meaningful to organize training in the countries where the system in question is in use. It is not excluded that Ukrainians can also be trained in some special tasks in Finland,” Haavisto said at the press conference.
Until now, Finnish trainers have participated in the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Britain.
Haavisto met the president of Ukraine in Kiev to Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleban as well as other Ukrainian ministers.
“The uppermost moods have been very serious. On the administration’s side, there was such an atmosphere that this might be another refugee winter.”
Haavisto said that he took the message that Finland is ready to accept more refugees from Ukraine. So far, Finland has received approximately 44,000 Ukrainians, the majority of whom are women and children.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared a photo of Haavisto and Zelensky shaking hands on Twitter.
The reason Among the serious moods mentioned by Haavisto are Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Winter has come to Ukraine, and Russia has completely destroyed 10-20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity transmission capacity.
Haavisto did not announce any new support measures. Finland just gave the Ukrainian armed forces winter equipment, including tents. Finland has supported Ukraine with around 300 million euros, of which around 100 million euros is humanitarian aid and 200 million military aid.
“We didn’t want to include the arrivals on this day on purpose, but the latest package of the military packages is quoted here. Military support is given, and specifically winter equipment. Let’s see what schedule they can be given,” Haavisto said.
According to Haavisto, the Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (Centre) investigates the possibilities of the private sector to help the Ukrainian war winter. It could mean expert help and, for example, aggregates and generators that can be used to produce electricity to replace the capacity destroyed by Russia.
Haavisto continues his journey to Bucharest, Romania, where he will take part in the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday. He is also scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of Turkey and Hungary at the meeting.
Haavisto had nothing new to say about the progress of Finland’s NATO membership approval process. The official process with Turkey has gone well, but in the end the decision is political and ultimately the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan double cloth.
“This takes nerve even from the foreign minister, but you have to be a long shot.”
As a travel companion In Kyiv, Haavisto had the foreign ministers of the Nordic and Baltic countries, with the exception of Denmark, whose foreign minister was caught up in the change of government.
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