In brief

• The article covers a October 27 call by Finland's and Norway's leaders to Vladimir Putin, which Politico says partly aimed to gauge the Russian leader's state of mind.
• Politico, citing anonymous sources, says the call came as US-Ukraine talks stalled and reflected a deep split in Europe over Ukraine.
• The report does not identify which governments disagreed, and its conclusions have not been independently confirmed.

The call and its purpose

According to Politico, which spoke with officials and diplomats on condition of anonymity, the call that Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store made to Vladimir Putin on October 27 was planned partly to assess the psychological condition of the Russian president (Звонок Стубба и Стере Путину выявил «глубочайший раскол в Европе относительно Украины» — Politico узнал новые детали разговора – NV). The two leaders had discussed the idea of a joint call for months before deciding it would be essential ahead of renewed talks in Abu Dhabi.

Why the move came now

The same report says a sharp deterioration between the White House and Volodymyr Zelensky in October added urgency. Stubb and Store hoped their initiative would back the Ukrainian president at a moment when Kyiv's talks with Washington appeared to be heading toward failure. Store later received Zelensky and Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo in an effort to restore contact between the sides.

Signs of division

Politico's own reading is that the call exposed a deep split in Europe on Ukraine, though the report does not say which governments disagreed with the approach, and the account rests on anonymous sources. The Finnish and Norwegian leaders' push for de-escalation of Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy and infrastructure was also reported in the same context.

What it means for the talks

The episode shows how far European capitals are willing to go to influence the negotiating track on their own, outside the framework set by Washington. Whether the call changed Moscow's position has not been established by the available reporting.

Read also

• Finland's president says call to Putin was coordinated with Ukraine and the US, while Denmark's PM voiced doubts
• Nordic Leaders Speak with Putin; Trilateral Talks Set for November
• Nordic Leaders Speak with Putin on Ukraine; Danish Premier Calls for European Unity