One of Ukraine's staunchest advocates in the EU and in NATO is Finland, which itself joined the Atlantic Alliance two years ago after decades of neutrality. We caught up with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb as he attended talks of the "coalition of the willing" hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. Stubb gives us his perspective on European security and defence, NATO and of course the increasingly fractious relationship between the EU and the Trump administration, as the latter announces fresh tariffs on European imports.

"We (Europeans) need two things," Stubb states. "One is a negotiating team, just like the Americans, the Ukrainians and the Russians have. And they had that in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And then probably eventually we need a special envoy who would be kind of in charge and coordinating everything, because right now, although we have really good leadership coming from France and the UK, there is still that question, 'OK, who is the European envoy? Who should I call'?"

On the "coalition of the willing", Stubb says: "This is originally a Franco-British initiative, which I welcome. It's a way to bring Britain back into Europe and get France engaged with Britain in a constructive way again. I think our mindset is very clear. We want Ukraine to win this war. We want them to retain their independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The French and the and the Brits took the lead. And the rest of us are following and being engaged as best we can."

Stubb then clears up misunderstandings about the circumstances in which "coalition of the willing" troops might potentially be deployed on the ground in Ukraine.

"A lot of people are getting their terms and timing mixed up here," he says. "So we need to look at this in two phases. The first phase is a ceasefire. The second phase is an actual peace agreement. So for the ceasefire you need some kind of a reassurance. That means that you can help in the air, on the sea, perhaps on land. That's the type of planning that our military staff are doing right now. And the political decisions that we take here in Paris are part of that first phase. The second phase is when peace has been maintained, settled and agreed. That's when you put in crisis management troops or peacekeeping troops on the basis of an international mandate. So these are two quite separate things. The ceasefire is still a state of war, whereas a peace agreement, that's when peace begins."

Stubb sounds sceptical, however, about the current ceasefire initiatives.

"What we're seeing is a classic Russian negotiating tactic," he opines. "Ukraine wants a full ceasefire. Europe wants a full ceasefire. America wants a full ceasefire, and Russia forces it into a partial ceasefire, which in the first phase was energy infrastructure, which, of course, the Russians bombed immediately after they had agreed to a ceasefire. And the second phase is now a ceasefire in the Black Sea. These are all steps in the right direction. But never underestimate the capacity of Russians to break a ceasefire. They'll continue to do it. We need a full ceasefire and that needs to be monitored."

The Finnish president also reacts to recent scornful comments by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance about "European freeloading".

"Well, yes, the rhetoric is a little bit tough, but let's give a little bit of credit to the Americans and to President Trump," Stubb answers. "I think he has done more in five weeks in pushing Europe to take care of its own security than previous American presidents did in 50 years. We are actually reacting to what the Americans are saying, and that's actually a good thing. So put the rhetoric aside and see what's happening on the ground."

Stubb then counters the "freeloading" charge when it comes to Finland and NATO's northern flank. "I come from a country with a 1,340km border with Russia, which has obligatory military service and one of the biggest militaries in Europe, and that has always bought American military equipment, including 62 F-18s and 64 F-35s, and has the biggest artillery in Europe, together with Poland. Up there in the northern flank, we don't freeload. We help. We are security providers, not security consumers."

Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Isabelle Romero, Luke Brown and Oihana Almando

'We will need a European special envoy for Ukraine': Finnish President Alexander Stubb

Talking Europe