AFP via Getty ImagesThe leaders of Finland and Norway have held a joint call with Vladimir Putin – a rare contact between the Russian president and European leaders.
The aim was looking at “future negotiations to help to end the war” in Ukraine, the offices of President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said. Their initiative was not on behalf of “Europe as a whole”.
After the call, Putin said “confrontational” EU and Nato policies were prolonging the war which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken to the two Nordic leaders after their conversation with Putin. Last week, Zelensky met them as well as US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo.
Tuesday’s 90-minute phone call was held from the Finnish capital Helsinki, and showed “big differences in views”, Støre said.
Finland and Norway, which border Russia, initiated the call to “discuss Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the diplomatic efforts to end the war and promote peace and stability in Europe”, the leaders’ offices said.
The call was “frank and substantive”, Stubb said, explaining that the war’s outcome will “have a direct impact on our and the broader European security”.
Støre added: “The war comes with enormous human and material costs… The suffering and destruction will impact generations.”
The Kremlin said Putin told the leaders that “a just and lasting peace” would only be possible if Russia’s interests were considered.
He – like Stubb and Støre – had agreed to continue their direct phone communication, the statement added.
Støre said all their allies had been informed of the call ahead of time.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “very sceptical” of Tuesday’s dialogue, telling Danish broadcaster DR, it had not been “co-ordinated with any of the rest of us”.
Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Stubb had informed him that Europe’s position on the upcoming talks in the United Arab Emirates, was “moderately optimistic”.
Relations between the US, Ukraine and its European allies have been souring since US President Donald Trump agreed to lift some sanctions from Russia – allowing it to export oil to the US.
But last week, Stubb, Støre and Zelesnky met with Witkoff in the Norwegian capital, before the US special envoy travelled on to St Petersburg to meet Putin.
Following the talks, Ukraine, Russia and the US agreed to resume three-way negotiations that Russia had stopped for months.
After speaking to the two Nordic leaders, Zelensky said part of their discussions with Putin had centred on November’s trilateral talks to be held in Abu Dhabi.
Zelensky said he had discussed with them “various formats for our engagement with partners in Europe that could be useful in further supporting diplomacy, our defense, and our shared security”.
Stubb and Støre are the first European leaders to contact Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron’s conversation with him in July 2025.
As the US administration’s position on Russia has softened, several European leaders have said Europe should be trying to establish direct contacts with the Kremlin.
Moscow regularly mocks European leaders and accuses the European Union of prolonging the war by supplying Ukraine with weapons.
But last weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said having a European negotiator at the peace talks table would be “good”.
