Finland’s president: first week of Iran war cost $40bn

The war in Ukraine could have ended sooner if Kyiv had received the same air defence support that was deployed in the Persian Gulf during the first seven days of the war in the Middle East, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

The first week of combat operations in Iran cost about $40 billion, which is comparable to the annual spending of European countries on aid to Ukraine, he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

He added that Ukraine may now gain some advantages from the conflict in the Middle East, which could hinder Russia’s ability to cooperate with Iran in the missile or defence industry.

However, he stressed that Russia already has two factories producing Shahed drones based on Iranian technology. He said a likely negative consequence of the war in the Middle East would be an increase in oil prices, ‘which will essentially fuel the Russian military machine’, as Russia is a major producer and exporter of crude oil.

(est, unian, bloomberg)