Finnish President Alexander Stubb says that the United States and Ukraine asked Norway and Finland to take a more active role in the peace process when they met in Oslo on October 20.
In a conversation with journalists in Helsinki, Stubb says that he and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held preparatory talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, before they spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bloomberg News reports.
“We are not peace mediators, we are working 100 percent for Ukraine,” says Stubb.
Stubb explains that he and Støre have rather played a role “behind the scenes” in relaying information between the parties, while the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, together with the EU, are providing leadership in the talks.
Stubb says that at the end of the conversation with Putin, the parties showed openness to continuing the dialogue, but that they did not agree on how or when.
