Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have held a joint call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare contact between the Russian leader and European leaders. The call took place on Tuesday and was held from the Finnish capital, Helsinki.
According to their offices, the aim was to look at “future negotiations to help to end the war” in Ukraine. The two leaders stressed that their initiative was not taken on behalf of “Europe as a whole”.
Putin blames EU and Nato policies for prolonging war
After the call, Putin said “confrontational” policies from the European Union and Nato were prolonging the war, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. Moscow regularly accuses European leaders of extending the conflict by supplying Ukraine with weapons.
Last weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that having a European negotiator at the peace talks table would be “good”.
Stubb and Støre point to shared border and security stakes
Stubb and Støre said Finland and Norway both border Russia. They said they had started the call to discuss Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and diplomatic efforts to end it, as well as to promote peace and stability in Europe.
Støre said the war carried “enormous human and material costs”, adding that the suffering and destruction would affect generations. Stubb described the conversation as “frank and substantive” and said the war’s outcome would have a direct impact on Europe’s security.
Zelensky and Denmark respond to the Nordic outreach
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the two Nordic leaders after their conversation with Putin and said he was grateful for their “active support”. Last week, he had met them and US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo.
Stubb and Støre said they had taken the initiative to continue discussions held in the Norwegian capital on 20 October, after which Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin. Zelensky said part of the discussion with Putin had focused on trilateral talks planned for Abu Dhabi in November, and that he had discussed “various formats” for engagement with European partners.
Relations between the United States, Ukraine and European allies have been strained since US President Donald Trump agreed to lift some sanctions on Russia, allowing it to export oil to the United States. Ukraine, Russia and the US have since agreed to resume three-way negotiations that Russia had halted for months.
Stubb and Støre are the first European leaders to contact Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with him in July 2025. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “very sceptical” of the dialogue. “It hasn’t been co-ordinated with any of the rest of us,” she told a Danish broadcaster.
