Støre said the European leaders stressed the importance of de-escalation in the call with Putin. “The war comes with enormous human and material costs. The suffering and destruction will impact generations,” he added.
Their conversation comes at a highly sensitive moment as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for a peace deal. Talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are planned to take place in Abu Dhabi next month.
Stubb’s office described the call as a follow-up to talks in Oslo on Oct. 20, in which the two European leaders were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who then traveled to meet Putin in Russia the following day.
Stubb and Støre are close friends and speak frequently, and they were together in Helsinki for the conversation with Putin. According to a statement from the Finnish president’s office, the two leaders wanted to tell the Russian leader directly that they would continue supporting Ukraine and that peace negotiations must resume, looking ahead to the planned meetings in Abu Dhabi.
They also told the Russian leader that they had a shared interest in the stability of the Baltic Sea region and the High North.
The last staunch European supporter of Ukraine to speak to Putin at leader level is believed to have been French President Emmanuel Macron in 2025. Some EU leaders like Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and former Hungarian premier Viktor Orban have maintained semi-regular contact with the Russian president in recent years, despite the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
