Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin warned that Europe cannot afford to allow Russia to succeed in its invasion of Ukraine, saying that it would only lead to more suffering.
Marin made the comments in Poznań, Poland on Thursday, as a keynote speaker at Impact'24, an international conference on preparing for a sustainable future.
"We need to send [Russian President] Vladimir Putin the signal that whatever happens, the end [result] will be Ukraine joining the EU and Nato," Marin said during a Q&A session at the event.
"I don't think that [we] as democracies can afford to let our values slide, let Ukraine lose and let Russia win, because then we will only end up in a worse situation where all of us are fearing for our future constantly," she said.
Impact'24 is the biggest economic and tech-related conference in Central and Eastern Europe.
The event's roughly 650 speakers also included Michelle Obama, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, US actor Jesse Eisenberg, historian Timothy Snyder, as well as historian and journalist Anne Applebaum.
Marin received top billing alongside Obama, and their faces were seen on posters and billboards promoting the event across the city. A number of conference attendees said they were impressed by the former premier.
One conference-goer, Agata Kalisz, said Marin's appearance was one of the main reasons she attended the event.
"She is very inspiring," Kalisz told Yle.
Marin's speech began on the topic of the situation in Ukraine.
She said that Europe cannot afford to allow Russia to be victorious in its invasion of Ukraine, warning that if that happens "we will see war for decades to come".
She suggested that if Russia does win the war, it would then invade Moldova and the Western Balkans, prompting "more suffering".
Marin also said Europe was lagging in the technology sector, hinting that it was too reliant on technologies from countries like China. She said Europe cannot afford to make the same mistakes regarding technology like it did in its reliance on energy from Russia.
As a solution, Marin proposed that European countries should invest more in education and getting talented people to help it catch up.
The former PM, who left Finnish politics to join the Tony Blair Institute last year, noted that she was now able to speak on a more personal level about various issues because she no longer represents a single administration.
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