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Stressing that “the EU has lessons learned from the war in Ukraine”, while recognising that “Russia is and will be the permanent threat to the EU and Europe”, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Thursday said the target should be to make “the European pillar of NATO as strong as possible and less dependent on others”, the Guardian reported.
“It is a very ambitious goal, but we have to start right now,” Orpo reportedly said while also reflecting on his recent conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was in Helsinki on Wednesday.
“They really want to be a member of the EU; they want to be one of us, and that is why we have to help them, support them in their path to the membership as soon as possible, latest by 2030,” the Guardian quoted Orpo as saying.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Zelenskyy, agreed that Ukraine and the US will continue working together to bring an end to the war and that lasting peace under Trump’s leadership could be achieved, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said.
In a statement, the duo said, “Today, President Donald J. Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a fantastic phone conversation. President Zelenskyy thanked President Trump for a productive start for the work of the Ukrainian and American teams in Jeddah on March 11th. The meeting of the senior officials from both nations significantly helped in moving toward ending the war.”
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the support of the US, particularly the Javelin missiles that Trump was the first to provide, and his efforts towards peace. Trump briefed Zelenskyy about his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely with their defense staff as the battlefield situation evolved.
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