Finland’s President on border situation: Putin uses people as war tool

Finnish President Alexander Stubb stands with the decision to close the border with Russia as a right move because Russia exploits migrants as a tool in their war.

He told about this on Yle's Ykkösaamu TV show, reports Ukrinform.

In his opinion, the decision to close the borders with the Russian Federation, adopted by the Finnish government, prevented the escalation involving staged migration flows because Russia itself is playing a cunning game.

"First, Russia, Putin, is using people as a tool, a tool in the war... The second side of the issue is Russia's fear that the mobilization will lead to Russian men fleeing the country toward Finland," Stubb said.

He hopes that the Finnish government will be able to approve a new border law in parliament. "This is not about ordinary refugees and migrants, but about using people as a tool of influence. And here, international legislation needs to keep up with the times," the Finnish leader noted.

This week, Finland became the eighth country to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. According to Stubb, within the framework of the deal, Finland is preparing for massive cooperation and is now "paving Ukraine's path to the EU and NATO", and the defense support that Finland provides to Ukraine "is also working for us".

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Finland announced on April 4 that it would not reopen the border with the Russian Federation because the situation at the border has not changed.

Photo: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle