Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin has argued that the only durable way to prevent a prolonged, recurring conflict with Russia is to ensure that Ukraine regains all of its territory, including Crimea. In remarks highlighted in Poland on 16 January 2026, Marin said the West may not know when the war will end, but it must make sure that Ukraine wins—“I don’t think there’s any other choice.”
Marin’s statement has circulated widely in recent days through SPRAVDI, an analytical resource linked to Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security, which focuses on countering disinformation and information attacks. Polish outlet Wirtualna Polska (WP) republished the argument on Friday morning, presenting it as a warning that anything short of a full Ukrainian restoration of control would risk locking Europe into a long cycle of instability.
The core of Marin’s message is strategic: if Russia were to “win,” she warned, Europe would face “decades of this kind of behaviour,” because the outcome would signal that aggression pays. In the clip and quotations cited by WP, Marin stresses that Ukraine must push Russia back to its own territory—and adds that this logic applies to Crimea as well.
While the WP piece is dated January 2026, the phrasing it quotes closely matches Marin’s earlier public remarks delivered during an interview session at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023, reported at the time by Finland’s public broadcaster Yle. In that interview, Marin used almost identical language about uncertainty over the war’s end and the need to ensure Ukraine’s victory, arguing that a Russian win would encourage further aggression.)
Marin’s emphasis on Crimea touches one of the most politically charged questions in any potential settlement. Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014, but the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity within internationally recognised borders and declaring the 2014 Crimea referendum invalid. For Marin, leaving occupied territories in Russia’s hands would not “freeze” the conflict but rather postpone it—creating the conditions for repeated confrontations over the long term.
Her position also reflects Finland’s security perspective. Marin led Finland from 2019 to 2023, a period that included the early phase of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Finland’s rapid shift from military non-alignment to NATO membership. Finland officially joined NATO on 4 April 2023, a watershed moment for the country’s defence posture and for the Alliance’s northern flank.
The renewed attention to Marin’s remarks comes amid a wider European debate over how long support for Ukraine can be sustained and what “success” should mean in practice. Marin’s argument rejects the idea of settling for partial restoration or a prolonged ceasefire that leaves key territories under occupation. In her framing, Europe’s goal is not merely to manage the war’s tempo but to remove the incentive structure behind future aggression by ensuring Russia is seen to lose.
For policymakers and observers, the significance of Marin’s intervention lies less in a single headline and more in the logic she offers: if Europe wants to avoid a “forever war” dynamic on its eastern flank, it must treat Ukraine’s territorial integrity as the non-negotiable endpoint rather than a bargaining chip. Whether European capitals are willing—and able—to sustain the level of military, financial and industrial support implied by that approach remains the central question as the war continues into its fourth year.
