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Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Monday called on the international community to intensify pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to initiate a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Speaking to AFP on the sidelines of a Nordic prime ministers’ meeting, Orpo, whose country shares a long border with Russia, asserted that “without force, Putin will not try to find a solution. That’s why we need more pressure.”
Orpo urged the international community to deploy “sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, more military aid, political support, all that we can” to assist Ukraine in defending against Russia’s aggression.
His comments follow what Kyiv described as Russia’s largest-ever drone barrage on Ukraine overnight. This barrage occurred just hours after Donald Trump reportedly called Putin “crazy” and warned of potential new sanctions if the bombardments continued.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store echoed Orpo’s sentiments, telling AFP that there have been no indications of Russia’s willingness for a ceasefire.
“We haven’t seen any indication of that, unfortunately,” he said, hoping that recent attacks would lead the US to be more explicit and maintain pressure on Russia rather than disengage.
Store concluded that these attacks demonstrate Putin’s “lack of will… to seriously engage in ceasefire or peace negotiations.”
