President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who earlier today held telephone talks with Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president received a detailed briefing, he said in a post following the conversation.
Zelenskyy expressed gratitude for their active support for diplomacy and joint peace efforts. The talks with the Russian president followed on from discussions in Oslo involving the United States, NATO and Europe.
“Alex and Jonas made it clear to the Russian leader that real de-escalation steps are needed regarding our energy sector and infrastructure. We discussed preparations for a trilateral meeting planned for November at team level — Ukrainian, American and Russian. Finland and Norway, as countries bordering Russia, have a particular interest in sound and reliable security solutions. We also discussed various formats for our engagement with partners in Europe that could be useful for further supporting diplomacy, our defence and shared security,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Context
On 27 October, Stubb and Støre held a joint phone call with Putin. Earlier, against the backdrop of the full-scale war against Ukraine, French leader Emmanuel Macron had direct contact with the Russian president.
Ukraine has repeatedly stressed the importance of Europe being at the negotiating table on peace. During previous attempts to agree on initial steps towards peace, Russia and the United States did not signal any desire to involve Europeans.
Last week in Oslo, talks took place between Zelenskyy, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, and the leaders of Norway and Finland, Støre and Stubb. Ukraine, representatives of Europe, NATO and the United States had planned to hold a new meeting in Brussels, but the plan fell through due to a change in the Americans’ plans.
Trilateral talks between representatives of Ukraine, the United States and Russia are scheduled for November.