Blinken ends his Nordic journey in Finland, NATO’s newest member, with a focus on the war.

Speaking Friday in the capital of NATO’s newest member, Finland, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called for continued Western aid to Ukraine and warned of the appeal of a ceasefire that could play into Russia’s hands .

In a speech at Helsinki City Hall billed as a major review of Washington’s thinking on the war in Ukraine, Mr Blinken also took stock of what he called the many “strategic failures” that Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin has since he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

He said that Mr Putin had unknowingly exposed and exacerbated the weakness of the Russian military, hindered its economy and inspired NATO to become more united and even bigger – as evidenced by Mr Blinken’s actions in Finland, which joined the alliance of 31 countries in April. after decades of firm neutrality.

Mr Putin’s war “has been a strategic failure – it has significantly reduced Russia’s power, interests and influence for years to come,” Mr Blinken said.

While the speech served as a victory lap of sorts to celebrate an unexpected degree of Western unity and Ukrainian resolve, it also contained cautionary remarks about what Mr Blinken suggested would be a long and difficult road for Kiev, especially amidst what he predicted. are new global calls for an end to the fighting.

“In the coming months, some countries will call for a ceasefire,” Blinken said. At first glance, that sounds sensible—appealing, even. After all, who would not want warring parties to lay down their arms? Who doesn’t want the killing to stop?”

But a ceasefire that freezes current lines, with Russia controlling large swathes of Ukrainian territory, he added, “is not a just and lasting peace. It’s a Potemkin peace. It would legitimize Russia’s land grab. It would reward the aggressor and punish the victim.”

While saying that the United States and Ukraine would like to see an end to the war, Mr Blinken warned that Mr Putin seemed to have little interest in negotiating an end to the fighting.

The Russian leader is “convinced that he can survive Ukraine and its supporters simply by sending more and more Russians to their deaths and making Ukrainian citizens suffer more and more,” Blinken said. “He thinks that even if he loses the short game, he can still win the long game.”

The United States would support any peace initiative “that helps bring President Putin to the table to conduct meaningful diplomacy,” the secretary of state said, adding that such efforts should hold Russia accountable for atrocities and help pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

While Mr Blinken said a peace deal should “affirm the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence”, he did not specify whether Russia would have to withdraw from all of Ukraine’s territory – including the strategic Crimean peninsula, which Russia ceded in 2014 and which many analysts believe Mr. Putin will never surrender.

Mr Blinken visited Helsinki in part to commemorate Finland’s recent entry into NATO, a defeat for Mr Putin, who has tried to block the alliance’s expansion eastward. Earlier in the day, Mr Blinken met with his outgoing Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, and Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto.

Mr Blinken called Finland’s NATO membership “a major change that would have been unthinkable just over a year earlier”. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said, only one in four Finns supported the country’s entry into NATO. After the invasion, three out of four Finns supported NATO membership.

Earlier this week, Blinken visited Sweden, whose bid to join the Atlantic alliance was thwarted by Turkey, and on Thursday met with allied foreign ministers in Oslo to address concerns about Ukraine’s security in the discuss long term.

Helsinki was expected to be Mr Blinken’s last stop on a Nordic tour, as Russia, China and NATO nations battle for stronger positions in the Arctic. Later this year, the United States will open a mission with a single diplomat in the city of Tromso, Norway – the only such facility above the Arctic Circle – Mr Blinken said at a news conference on Thursday.