Finland says western aid to Ukraine ‘not charity’

Finland has hit back at claims aired at a Nato summit that Ukraine has failed to show gratitude for western support, saying aid should not be regarded as charity.

Finnish foreign minister Elina Valtonen said in an interview that “we in the west need to understand that obviously, this is not charity because Ukraine is fighting for us. They are fighting for our liberty and the European security architecture.”

Over the course of the two-day Nato summit in Vilnius earlier this week, tensions surfaced between Kyiv and some western officials, undermining a show of unity among allies in the face of Russian aggression.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Nato for its “absurd” lack of a clear timeline for his country’s membership of the military alliance.

Senior officials from the US and the UK retorted that Ukraine should be grateful for the assistance and not jump immediately to the next item on its weapons wish list. “We are not Amazon,” said UK defence secretary Ben Wallace, in reference to the online shopping platform. Zelenskyy later responded that he did not know he had to express gratitude “personally” to the minister.

Valtonen said the west remains committed to Ukraine and that it’s in its interest to do so. “I wouldn’t say there’s any fatigue and I hope there never will be,” she said.

Even if Nato would have met Ukraine’s demands for a clearer path to membership, that “wouldn’t be a 100 per cent guarantee” it would be joining soon, she said. And once a member, Nato’s mutual defence clause “is always still a political decision — what to send, how much to send, on which terms to assist,” she said. 

Ukraine’s allies made long-term pledges to its security and backed the country’s eventual Nato membership — though that support fell short of Kyiv’s expectations, as well as those of some Nato members such as the Baltic states and Poland.

Zelenskyy later took pains to emphasise Ukraine’s appreciation for the sustained assistance and described long-term security commitments from the G7 and other powers as a “significant security victory” that would eventually help the country on its path to Nato.

Valtonen said the most important thing was for the US and its partners to “keep on solidifying their support.”

Asked whether the US could be counted on to do so should a Ukraine-sceptic such as Donald Trump win the US election in 2024, she said the US Congress had played an important role in sustaining assistance but that the war has also made clear Europe has more to do. 

“I’m very hopeful that the US will continue its unwavering support, there seems to be very, very widespread support across Congress, both sides, so I really rely on that” she said. 

But, she added: “There’s a truth to the fact that Europe also needs to do more. And I think, as sad as the war is, the key takeaway has been that there is suddenly also the awareness in Europe that we need to invest into our defence, much, much more than we have done before.”

She said the war in Ukraine was also useful in exposing “the weakness of Russia”. Finland, for decades a neutral country bordering Russia, joined Nato in April after a fast accession process prompted by the war.

US president Joe Biden travelled to Helsinki on Thursday to take part in a US-Nordic summit that included the leader of Sweden, Nato’s next member. His visit stood in stark contrast to the last visit by a US president, Trump, who went to Finland in 2018 to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin.