Finland, Norway Leaders Hold Rare Call With Putin on Ukraine

What happened

The leaders of Finland and Norway held a joint phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a rare direct contact between the Russian leader and European heads of government. The 90-minute call was made from the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the aim was to look at "future negotiations to help to end the war" in Ukraine. Their offices stressed the initiative was not made on behalf of "Europe as a whole."

Putin, for his part, told the two leaders that "confrontational" EU and NATO policies were prolonging the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The Kremlin said a "just and lasting peace" would only be possible if Russia's interests were considered.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Stubb and Støre after their conversation with Putin. He thanked them for their "active support" and said part of their discussion centred on November's trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi.

Why it matters

Stubb and Støre are the first European leaders to contact Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to him in July 2025. That alone makes the call a break in Europe's long freeze on direct leader-level contact with Moscow.

Both countries border Russia, and both framed the war as a direct security question. Stubb called the call "frank and substantive" and said the war's outcome will "have a direct impact on our and the broader European security." Støre was blunter about the gap between the sides, saying the call showed "big differences in views" and warning that "the suffering and destruction will impact generations."

The reaction inside Europe was split. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was "very sceptical" of the dialogue, telling Danish broadcaster DR it had not been "co-ordinated with any of the rest of us." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, meanwhile, said Stubb had told him Europe's position on the upcoming talks in the United Arab Emirates was "moderately optimistic."

The call also fits into a wider diplomatic sequence. Last week, Stubb, Støre and Zelensky met US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo, before Witkoff travelled to St Petersburg to meet Putin. After those talks, Ukraine, Russia and the US agreed to resume [three-way negotiations](/article/russia-ukraine-peace-talks-explained) that Russia had stopped for months. Ukraine's side of the war effort has also been under the spotlight, with its Starlink connection now stable after recent network limits, according to [earlier reporting](/article/ukraine-starlink-now-stable-after-network-limits).

What it means for the US

Washington is now a direct party to the diplomacy the Nordic leaders were testing. The November talks in Abu Dhabi are trilateral — Ukraine, Russia and the US — so anything Stubb and Støre learned about Moscow's positions feeds straight into the American negotiating position.

The call also comes as relations between the US, Ukraine and its European allies have been souring since President Donald Trump agreed to lift some sanctions on Russia, allowing it to export oil to the US. That shift is part of why several European leaders now argue Europe should try establishing its own direct contacts with the Kremlin rather than leaving the diplomacy entirely to Washington.

For American readers, the stakes are concrete: the outcome of the Abu Dhabi talks will shape US sanctions policy, American military aid debates, and energy markets. A genuine opening could ease pressure on both; a collapse could push the administration back toward tougher measures and a bigger aid fight in Congress.

What happens next

The immediate test is November's trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, where Ukraine, Russia and the US will sit down for the first time in months. Zelensky said he discussed with the Nordic leaders "various formats for our engagement with partners in Europe that could be useful in further supporting diplomacy, our defense, and our shared security."

Stubb, Støre and Putin also agreed to keep their direct phone communication going, the Kremlin said, and the Nordic leaders said all their allies had been informed of the call ahead of time. Last weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said having a European negotiator at the peace talks table would be "good" — a signal Moscow may accept a European presence it has long resisted.

Whether the call produces anything beyond talk depends on what Moscow brings to Abu Dhabi. The "big differences in views" Støre described have not gone away. But for the first time in over a year, a European channel to Putin is open again.