Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen says that if a peace agreement imposes a cap on the number of troops in Ukraine’s Armed Forces, the same limit should be set for the Russian army.
In her view, Moscow is unlikely to approve it, but such a move would have broad international support, Yle reported.
“It’s reasonable that if, for example, demands or restrictions are imposed on the victim regarding the size of its defense forces, then at least the same demands should be imposed on the aggressor… This can be linked more broadly to an arms control regime for Russia. Historically, Russia has been a threat to its neighboring countries, not the other way around,” she said during a virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Valtonen said Russia would accept this and other conditions only if it had no other options. She also argued that even if the war ended tomorrow, the Russian threat would not vanish, and Europe must prepare by all means.
Earlier reports said the initial version of a US plan included demands for Ukraine to give up some weapons, territories in Donbas, and to reduce its armed forces to 600,000 troops.
Later, the Financial Times reported the document was trimmed from 28 to 19 points, and that Ukraine agreed to a cap of 800,000 for its armed forces.
However, the Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Andrey Hnatov, said the issue of reducing Ukraine’s army was not raised during Geneva talks between the Ukrainian and US delegations.
