Finnish and Norwegian Leaders Hold Joint Call With Putin on Ukraine Talks

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a joint phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, 27 October. The call took place from Helsinki, and its stated aim was to look at future negotiations to help end the war in Ukraine, according to Norway's Office of the Prime Minister.

Stubb described the conversation as frank and substantive. He and Støre said their initiative was not made on behalf of Europe as a whole. They said they had started the call to continue discussions held in Oslo on 20 October, after which US special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin. An envoy is a government's personal representative for a specific task.

Zelensky met Stubb, Støre and Witkoff in Oslo the week before the call. After the Oslo talks, Ukraine, Russia and the United States agreed to resume three-way negotiations that Russia had stopped for months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Stubb and Støre after their conversation with Putin. He said part of the discussions with Putin centred on trilateral talks due to be held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in November. Finland's presidential office said the call related to the upcoming meetings in Abu Dhabi.

After the call, Putin said that confrontational policies by the European Union and NATO were prolonging the war in Ukraine. The Finnish and Norwegian leaders urged Putin to end the war, according to BBC reporting.

The call was described as rare. 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 and that it had not been coordinated with other leaders.