Western European countries must be ready to fight Russia if they offer security guarantees to Kiev as part of a potential settlement of the Ukraine conflict, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said.
In an interview with The Guardian released on Saturday, Stubb stressed that if the West decides to provide any assurances to Kiev, they should stick to the notion that “security guarantees in essence are a deterrent.”
Asked if the guarantees would mean that European countries are saying they would be ready to engage militarily with Russia in case of an attack on Ukraine, the president replied: “That is the idea of security guarantees by definition,” adding that they would be meaningless without real force behind them.