Finnish president: Russia is using typical negotiating tactics by demanding the impossible

President of Finland Alexander Stubb believes that in the current negotiations to end the war, Russia is deliberately putting forward demands that cannot be accepted.

The Finnish president stated that the Kremlin is pursuing "typical Russian negotiating tactics," in an interview on Fox News.

"You say one thing in the beginning, and then you start retracting. It happens all the time," the Finnish president said.

Speaking on the US TV channel, Stubb stressed that it is very important for an American audience to understand what Russia’s territorial demands amount to.

"If you take what Putin is asking from Ukraine and juxtapose that to the United States, it's a little bit like the US giving up Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, even Maryland and creating some kind of superhighway through which you can attack New York. So it is pretty much a no-go. He knows it, but he keeps on demanding it," he added. 

Stubb also pointed out that Russia has been trying to seize the whole of Donbas since 2014 and still has not managed it.

"He [Putin – ed.] has 75% of it, but it has taken 12 years, and 50% of that came straight at the beginning. So he's really advancing just a tiny bit at a time," the president of Finland emphasised.

Earlier, media outlets reported that during the 18 August talks at the White House, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders compared handing over part of Donetsk Oblast to Russia with the US having to give up part of Florida – and this analogy left an impression on the US president.