Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a phone call with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store that he would not compromise on the issue of Donbas.
Globalinfo.az reports that this was stated by the Reuters news agency, citing a source close to the Kremlin.
According to the source, Putin told the Finnish and Norwegian leaders that Russia would not back down from its goal of seizing the entire Donbas territory of Ukraine. European leaders, in response, stressed the need for a “just” peace.
In its statement on the outcome of the phone call, the Kremlin said that a just and lasting peace could only be achieved if Russia’s “legitimate interests” were taken into account fully and unconditionally.
The agency’s source also noted that the last leader of a European Union member state to speak with Putin by phone was French President Emmanuel Macron. Their previous phone call took place in July. According to the source, that conversation was not made public and yielded no results.
According to Bloomberg, Stubb and Store are seeking to take part in discussions on Europe’s future security architecture, since the outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine will directly affect the security of their own countries as well as Europe as a whole.
The agency emphasized that the leaders of Finland and Norway said they were not speaking on behalf of all of Europe, but acted during the phone call as the leaders of their own countries.
Bloomberg notes that the phone call took place at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war. According to the outlet, Stubb and Store linked their contacts with Putin to preparations for trilateral talks involving representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, planned to be held in Abu Dhabi next month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke with Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Store and discussed their conversation with Putin.
According to Zelensky, the European diplomats clearly told the Russian leader of the need to reduce strikes on Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure facilities and to take real steps to ease tensions.
The Ukrainian president also noted that preparations for a Ukraine–US–Russia trilateral meeting, planned for November, were discussed.
Aliyar Khalil
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