Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finland’s hawkish President Alexander Stubb will discuss Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ on Tuesday, as the Finnish foreign minister urged Germany to shed its reservations about weapon deliveries and embrace its “very important role”.

Stubb and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen arrived in Berlin on Monday (21 October).

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Germany has lifted restrictions [removal of restrictions on the use of Western weapons against military targets in Russia] only around the Kharkiv region, while Scholz refuses to deliver missiles of the range for which such removal is primarily relevant.

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Valtonen appeared to respond to Scholz’s reservations before Tuesday’s talks, urging Germany to show military leadership.

“It must be said in Berlin that we hope that Germany will play a very important role [in facing the Russian threat],” Valtonen said in German at a press conference with her Nordic and German counterparts on Tuesday.

“No matter what Russia says, we [must] understand that we aren’t responsible for any escalation because we work within international law,” she said. Valtonen added that those who believe that Russia will let go “if we down our weapons err.”

She thus echoed the position of Germany’s Christian Democratic opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who has repeatedly pushed Scholz to deliver long-range weapons. Stubb, Valtonen, and Merz belong to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), while Scholz is a Social Democrat.

Helsinki has allowed Ukraine to use its weapons against Russian territory in compliance with international law and backs restrictions being lifted.

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[Edit typo.]