WorldPosted at: Oct 27 2026 9:19PM


Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre hold rare call with Putin to end Ukraine war

Helsinki/Moscow, Oct 27 (UNI) Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have held a rare telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss possible negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
The call, held from Helsinki on Tuesday, aimed to explore “future negotiations to help to end the war”, the leaders’ offices said. They stressed that the initiative was not undertaken on behalf of Europe as a whole.
“Finland and Norway border Russia,” Stubb and Støre said, adding that they had initiated the conversation to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and ways to promote peace and stability in Europe.
Støre said the war had brought “enormous human and material costs”, adding that the suffering and destruction would affect generations. Stubb described the conversation as “frank and substantive”, saying the outcome of the war would have a direct impact on Nordic and wider European security.
Following the call, Putin accused the European union and NATO of prolonging the conflict through their “confrontational” policies. Moscow has repeatedly criticised European countries for supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Stubb and Støre after their conversation with Putin, thanking them for their “active support”. He said the leaders had discussed preparations for the next round of trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the US, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi in November.
Zelensky also discussed “various formats for our engagement with partners in Europe” that could support diplomacy, Ukraine’s defence and shared security. Last week, he met Stubb and Støre, along with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, in Oslo.
The Finnish and Norwegian leaders said Tuesday’s call followed discussions held in Oslo on October 20, after which Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin. Ukraine, Russia and the US subsequently agreed to resume three-way negotiations that Moscow had suspended for months.
Stubb and Støre are the first European leaders to speak directly with Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron’s conversation with the Russian leader in July 2025.
However, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expressed scepticism about the latest contact, telling broadcaster DR that the dialogue had not been co-ordinated with other European leaders.
“It hasn’t been co-ordinated with any of the rest of us,” she said.
Relations between the US, Ukraine and European allies have also been strained after US President Donald Trump agreed to ease some sanctions on Russia, allowing it to export oil to the US.
Despite Moscow’s criticism of European involvement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last weekend that having a European representative participate in peace negotiations would be “good”.
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