HELSINKI: Finland on Thursday hosts a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the “Helsinki Final Act” on respecting borders and territorial integrity, principles that have come under assault following the war in Ukraine.
Keynote speakers for the conference include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Zelensky had been invited to attend the conference but will give his address remotely, the Finnish foreign ministry told AFP. Guterres will also only speak via a video message.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that Russia would be participating but would not be sending any high-level representatives to the meeting.
“Russia does not see the expediency of participating in the event at a high political level,” she told reporters, adding representatives would still “take part in the conversation.”
Notable guests include UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, as well as Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who arrived in Helsinki on Wednesday.
An opening speech is scheduled for 10:00 am (0700 GMT) by the Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE), Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen.
On August 1, 1975, 50 years ago, the Eastern and Western blocs signed the Helsinki Final Act in the Finnish capital.
The historic agreement between 35 states, including the Soviet Union and the United States, led to the creation of the OSCE, which today brings together 57 countries.
Among the key principles enshrined in the treaty are state sovereignty, non-use of force, and above all, the inviolability of borders.
“The participating States regard as inviolable all one another’s frontiers as well as the frontiers of all States in Europe and therefore they will refrain now and in the future from assaulting these frontiers,” the text of the treaty reads.
These commitments have been gravely challenged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has caused the most severe crisis in OSCE history.
Since then, Kyiv has unsuccessfully demanded that Russia be excluded from the international body.
However, in July 2024, Russian lawmakers earlier voted to suspend participation in the body’s parliamentary assembly, branding it anti-Russian and discriminatory, although the country is still listed as a member state on the organization’s official website.
While in Finland, Sybiga is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with several Finnish officials, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and other high-level officials visiting the conference, according to the Ukrainian diplomacy.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday that “key topics” would include “synchronizing allied pressure on Moscow.”
Finland shut its 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) eastern border with Russia in mid-December 2023 after the arrival of around 1,000 migrants without visas.
Helsinki has claimed the surge was orchestrated by Russia — a charge the Kremlin has denied.
Finland celebrates 50 years since Helsinki Accords in shadow of Ukraine war
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Finland celebrates 50 years since Helsinki Accords in shadow of Ukraine war
- The historic agreement between 35 states, including the Soviet Union and the United States, led to the creation of the OSCE, which today brings together 57 countries
- Among the key principles enshrined in the treaty are state sovereignty, non-use of force, and the inviolability of borders
Russia and Ukraine trade attacks as US and European officials prepare for peace talks
Moscow pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure with drone and missile strikes on Saturday and Kyiv launched a deadly strike of its own on southwestern Russia, a day before talks involving senior European and US officials aimed at ending the war were set to resume.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian, US and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin in the coming days, adding that he will personally meet with US President Donald Trump’s envoys.
“Most importantly, I will be meeting with envoys of President Trump, and there will also be meetings with our European partners, with many leaders, concerning the foundation of peace — a political agreement to end the war,” Zelensky said in an address to the nation late Saturday.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Berlin for the talks, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American officials have tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including which combatant will get control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
“The chance is considerable at this moment, and it matters for our every city, for our every Ukrainian community,” Zelensky said. “We are working to ensure that peace for Ukraine is dignified, and to secure a guarantee — a guarantee, above all — that Russia will not return to Ukraine for a third invasion.”
As diplomats push for peace, the war grinds on.
Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight, targeting the country’s energy and port infrastructure. Zelensky said the attacks involved more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. And with temperatures hovering around freezing, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said more than a million people were without electricity.
An attack on Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the coastal city’s port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
Kyiv and its allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
The drone attack in Russia’s Saratov region damaged a residential building and killed two people, said the regional governor, Roman Busargin, who didn’t offer further details. Busragin said the attack also shattered windows at a kindergarten and clinic. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims this month that it had taken full control of the critical city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.
The latest attacks came after Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov reaffirmed Friday that Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from parts of the Donetsk region that they still control.
Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the remaining part of the region to Russia.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard troops would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan — a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as US-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
“We don’t know what changes they are making, but clearly they aren’t for the better,” Ushakov said, adding: “We will strongly insist on our considerations.”
In other developments, about 480 people were evacuated Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call concerning a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokesperson for the Przemysl police, told The Associated Press. Nobody was hurt and she didn’t elaborate on the threat.
Polish authorities are on high alert since multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line linking Warsaw to the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence Russia was behind it.
