Nordic Leaders Bridge Dialogue with Putin on Ukraine

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Finland's President Alexander Stubb and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre initiated a rare 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin from Helsinki, marking direct contact between a Russian leader and Western European officials in an unusual diplomatic effort. The call aimed to convey messages about future peace negotiations on Ukraine. Both leaders emphasized they were acting as neighboring nations rather than representing the European Union as a whole, a distinction they felt obliged to clarify given the absence of broader European coordination. Stubb stated that ending the conflict requires active dialogue, not inaction, though neither side reported breakthrough progress.