IQN (NewsDesk): Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a 90 minute call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a rare contact between European leaders and the Kremlin since the full scale invasion of Ukraine.
The call was made from Helsinki and followed a meeting in Oslo on October 20 with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after which Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin. Stubb’s office said it related to upcoming meetings in Abu Dhabi, where Ukraine, Russia and the US have agreed to hold technical level talks in early November. The leaders called Zelensky afterwards.
Stubb called the discussion frank and substantive, and Støre said it highlighted big differences in views and stressed the importance of de-escalation. Putin said confrontational EU and NATO policies were prolonging the war, and the Kremlin’s readout did not suggest any compromise. Both Nordic leaders stressed that they were acting for their own countries, not for Europe as a whole, and that their support for Ukraine would continue. They are the first European leaders to speak to Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron in July 2025. The call came as US ties with Ukraine hit their lowest point in 18 months.
