Putin call splits the Nordics and the EU

Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister called Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the first such call by a leader of a European country backing Ukraine since July 2025. Denmark’s prime minister says the initiative was not coordinated with others. The Putin call has split a Nordic group that rarely disagrees on Russia, and it exposes a gap in Brussels: there is no agreed answer to who talks to Moscow for Europe.

Two leaders, no mandate

Stubb and Støre called from Helsinki. They say they wanted to pass Ukraine’s messages to Putin ahead of the Abu Dhabi talks and that they acted in consultation with Kyiv. The call followed a meeting in Oslo on 20 October, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy met US envoy Steve Witkoff. Both leaders stressed they spoke for their own countries, not for Europe.

Stubb said ending the war requires direct discussions, and Støre stressed de-escalation. They then phoned Zelenskyy, who wrote on X that they had pressed for concrete steps to ease attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities. Preparations for the November talks also came up.

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The Kremlin’s version is shorter. Putin criticised the confrontational policies of EU and NATO countries for prolonging the war, and the three agreed to keep direct phone contact. The Kremlin says a lasting peace requires Russia’s legitimate interests to be taken into account “fully and unconditionally”.

A source close to the Kremlin said that Putin signalled no compromise on taking all of Donbas and that the two replied a just peace was needed. That is one anonymous source.

Copenhagen and Stockholm object

Mette Frederiksen said she is very sceptical of what she called an independent initiative by Norway and Finland and that it was not coordinated with other European countries. She compared the move with Viktor Orbán’s trip to Moscow. Her evidence that Moscow is not serious is the war itself: overnight, 16 ballistic missiles and more than 280 drones hit Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson was milder. Everyone wants peace except Putin, he said, but talks that risk splitting the European voice are risky.

Brussels is not absent, but it has no agreed envoy

The Commission and the Council are building their own channel. They are preparing a joint team of senior officials for the technical talks in Abu Dhabi, with von der Leyen’s chief of cabinet Bjoern Seibert tipped to lead it. Ukraine, Russia and the US have agreed to meet there in the first half of November. Brussels wants Europeans at the same table, which has not happened before in this process.

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Accounts differ on how settled this is. Il Foglio reported on 23 October that von der Leyen had appointed Seibert as the EU’s envoy as a fait accompli, without consulting leaders and without a decision by the European Council. Euronews says no envoy has been named. Neither report documents whether leaders were informed beforehand.

The last European attempt at a channel ended badly. In June, a senior aide to Costa had brief contacts with Kremlin officials. Macron and Merz objected at the 18 June summit, and Denmark and the Netherlands backed them. The channel was put on hold.

On direct talks, Macron and Meloni are among those who called for contact earlier this year, with Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Luxembourg and Slovakia gradually following. Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic states resist, arguing that Russia’s positions remain maximalist.

Moscow wants Europe at the table

Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov said it is not enough to talk only to Kyiv and that Moscow wants to talk to the whole of Europe. Russia appears to welcome European participation in the talks.

Three answers to the question of who speaks for Europe are now on the table: two leaders on a phone line, a Commission aide whose title is disputed, and a Council channel on hold. The first test comes in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November.