Finland Readout: President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre Hold Telephone Call with President Vladimir Putin
It will be more interesting to review the official readout from Russia, because as you can see below the readout from Finland and Norway is full of generalized words with no substance about the issues discussed.
Finland President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had a telephone conversation with Russian Federation President, Vladimir Putin. Here is the readout from the Finland/Norway side:
[TRANSLATED, Via Finland]: “On Tuesday, 27 October 2026, President of the Republic Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre held a telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The call was a follow-up to the meeting held in Oslo on 20 October. Ukraine was consulted in the preparation of the call.
President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre initiated the call to discuss Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and diplomatic efforts to end the war and promote peace and stability in Europe.
Finland and Norway are Russia’s neighbours, and both countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine. The aim of the call was to convey Ukraine’s messages about the upcoming peace talks in Abu Dhabi directly to President Putin.
President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre participated in the call as leaders of their countries, and they did not act as representatives of Europe.
Finland and Norway have always promoted peace and security in their regions. In the call, President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre emphasised that both countries operate in a stable and predictable manner in the Baltic Sea and the northern regions.
The President and Prime Minister emphasised that Finland and Norway will continue their long-term support for Ukraine. Stubb and Støre stressed that the war must end and the negotiations must continue.
“The discussion was direct and to the point. We are Russia’s neighbours. How the war ends will affect the security of Finland and Norway and, more broadly, the security of Europe as a whole. Ending the war requires direct discussions,” President Stubb said.
“War causes enormous human suffering and costs. War leaves its mark on several generations. In the call, we emphasized the importance of de-escalation,” Prime Minister Store said.
President Stubb and Prime Minister Støre made a phone call from Helsinki.” {Source – Translated}
We suspected there would be something slightly more substantive from the Russian readout of the phone call between Vladimir Putin, Alexander Stubb and Jonas Störe. You can read the Nordic readout here.
Here’s the Russian version: “President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Finland Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway Jonas Gahr Störe at the request of the Finnish and Norwegian sides.”
“There was an exchange of views on settling the Ukraine crisis in light of Vladimir Putin’s talks with US Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on October 21 as well as Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Störe’s own recent contacts with Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Zelensky in Oslo.
The parties welcomed the agreement to resume trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States in Abu Dhabi in early to mid November, intended in particular to discuss ways to ensure the security of both Russia and Ukraine once a complete cessation of hostilities is reached.
Vladimir Putin assessed the current situation in the Ukraine conflict zone, reiterating its root causes and emphasising that a just and lasting peace would be possible only if the interests of the Russian Federation are considered in full and without any conditions attached. In addition, he noted the EU and NATO’s confrontational policies which result in prolonging the hostilities.
Ensuring security in the Baltic Sea and Northern Europe were discussed as well. In this regard, both the President of Finland and the Prime Minister of Norway reaffirmed the importance of upholding international maritime law and the freedom of navigation.
The President of Russia notified the Finnish and Norwegian parties of the fact that a US-mediated humanitarian operation was now underway in the vicinity of the Russian community of Alyoshki and that a temporary ceasefire was introduced in the Kherson sector of the frontline to make it possible.
The three leaders agreed to maintain direct telephone contact in the future. (source)
Not everyone is happy about all this direct contact that could lead to the possibility of a permanent ceasefire and direct negotiations toward the ending of hostilities. Mette and Ulf are not pleased. Apparently, the Danes and Swedes are not happy about all this, well, peaceful stuff being thrown about willy nilly.
[…] Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the call, saying it ‘was not coordinated with the rest of us.’ She stressed the importance of European unity in comments to reporters on Tuesday, adding ‘we should be very careful about giving Putin an opportunity that he did not have until a few hours ago.’
Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, speaking from an event in Helsinki, said he had been given no advance notice and held low expectations from the call. He emphasized that his country’s position remained that peace had to be reached on Ukraine’s terms. (source)
All of this is happening after both Russia and Ukraine said a ceasefire in the city of, Oleshky brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, had begun at 3am local time and was in effect through the morning. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said it would last until 10.59pm on November 1.
Oleshky in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region has been caught in the middle of the fighting since 2022, when it was overwhelmed by Russian forces at the start of the invasion. The population has dropped from about 24,000 to around 2,000 today.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Marine Corps, Pavlo Drogal, told reporters that ‘the enemy is observing the ceasefire’ as of 9am local time. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said there had been no reports of violations.
Peace is the prize!
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