Telephone to the Kremlin. The leaders of Norway and Finland talked to Putin

The telephone conversation followed a meeting that Støre and Stubb had last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Norwegian administration said the leaders wanted to personally present to the Russian president their position on future negotiations to end the war.

This war has enormous human and material costs. The suffering and destruction will impact generations to come. During the conversation, we emphasized the importance of actions leading to the de-escalation of the war, Stoere said.

Alexander Stubb described the conversation with Putin as "direct and substantive."

"We are Russia's neighbors. The outcome of this war will have a direct impact on our security and the security of Europe. This requires talks to end the war," the Finnish president emphasized in an official statement.

The topics of the conversation also included the meeting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi, planned for November.

Støre and Stubb stressed that in their conversation with Putin they represented only Norway and Finland, and not the whole of Europe. An adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian president spoke with the leaders of Finland and Norway after their call to Putin.

Negotiations are ongoing

A week ago, Støre and Stubb met in Oslo with Zelensky and US special envoy Steve Witkoff. The talks took place before the American representative's trip to St. Petersburg, where he was to talk to the Russian president. Witkoff went there with peace proposals prepared during the Oslo talks.