Finnish and Norwegian leaders call Putin as strikes hit Kyiv

Finland’s and Norway’s leaders held a rare call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine, as Russian strikes hit a major bridge in Kyiv ahead of planned talks in Abu Dhabi.

President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre spoke with Putin for 90 minutes from Helsinki. They said they had consulted Ukraine before the call and were speaking for their own countries, not for Europe as a whole. Both spoke afterward with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Ending the war requires direct discussions,” Stubb said in a joint Finnish-Norwegian statement reported by Al Jazeera. He said the war’s outcome would directly affect the security of Finland and Norway, which both border Russia, as well as Europe more widely. Støre said the call showed “big differences in views” and that the leaders had stressed the need to de-escalate.

“The war comes with enormous human and material costs,” Støre said. “The suffering and destruction will impact generations.” Both leaders said their support for Ukraine would continue.

The Kremlin said Putin told the leaders that “a just and lasting peace” would require Russia’s interests to be considered. Putin also said “confrontational” European Union and NATO policies were prolonging the war, the BBC reported. According to the Kremlin, all three leaders agreed to continue communicating directly by phone.

Zelenskyy said Stubb and Støre had told Putin that Russia needed to take real steps to reduce attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities and other infrastructure. “There must be peace, de-escalation is needed, and Russia must stop dragging out the war,” he wrote on X. He thanked the leaders for their “active support” and said they had discussed preparations for three-way talks with Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi in November.

The diplomatic contact came amid new attacks. Kyiv officials said Russia fired 16 ballistic missiles and more than 280 drones in overnight strikes on the capital, hitting the South Bridge, Al Jazeera reported. Zelenskyy said Russian forces struck again while emergency crews were responding. “This is a serious escalation in Russia’s campaign targeting our logistics,” he said.

Al Jazeera reported deaths and injuries from Russian attacks in Kharkiv and Pavlohrad. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had targeted transport infrastructure in Kyiv, a logistics hub in the Kharkiv region and other sites it said served military purposes. Officials in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia said a drone strike on a bus killed one person and injured 30. A drone attack in the Russian city of Bryansk killed one person and wounded six, Al Jazeera reported.

The Finnish and Norwegian governments described Tuesday’s call as a follow-up to talks they held in Oslo on October 20 with Zelenskyy and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to Al Jazeera. Witkoff met Putin in St Petersburg the next day. Kyiv and Moscow said Friday they had agreed to U.S.-mediated technical meetings in Abu Dhabi in early November, Al Jazeera reported.

Støre said allies had been informed before the call. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, however, told broadcaster DR she was “very sceptical” of the dialogue and said it had not been coordinated with other European leaders, the BBC reported.