Ukraine: Biden: Putin has already lost war

US President Joe Biden already considers Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin to be the loser in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. “Putin has already lost the war. Putin has a real problem,” said the 80-year-old at a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Helsinki.

The Russian President could end the war tomorrow. “But there is no way he will win the war in Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine’s NATO membership is a matter of time

Regarding the prospects for Ukraine’s NATO membership, Biden emphasized that there was no question of whether the country should join the alliance or not. “It’s about when they can join. And they will join NATO,” Biden said.

He again pointed out that no country could become a NATO member that was currently under attack. At its summit this week, NATO dashed hopes of early accession. Although the alliance in Vilnius gave the country hope of admission, a formal invitation was subject to conditions.

Biden said he doesn’t think the Ukraine war will drag on for years. For one thing, he doesn’t believe that Russia, with its capacities and resources, can sustain the war forever.

On the other hand, there will be conditions in which Putin will come to the conclusion that continuing the war in Russia’s interests no longer makes economic and political sense. His hope and expectation is that Ukraine will make significant progress on its offensive and that there will be some sort of negotiated settlement to the war.

At the beginning of April, Finland became the 31st member of NATO and borders Russia over a distance of around 1,340 kilometers. Biden traveled on to the EU country after the NATO summit in Vilnius. There he met with Niinistö on Thursday and, together with the Finnish head of state, held a summit with the heads of government of the other Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland.