Norwegian and Finnish leaders hold rare call with Putin to discuss Ukraine war negotiations

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a joint phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first such contact by European leaders since French President Emmanuel Macron in July 2025. The leaders said the initiative was not on behalf of Europe as a whole. Putin said confrontational EU and NATO policies were prolonging the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was grateful for the active support of his Finnish and Norwegian counterparts, and discussed upcoming trilateral talks to be held in Abu Dhabi in November.