HELSINKI: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Helsinki on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a phone call about a potential ceasefire.
Zelenskyy will meet Finnish President Alexander Stubb for talks, to be followed by discussions with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the speaker of parliament Jussi Halla-aho.
“The formal talks held at the Presidential Palace will focus on Finland’s support for Ukraine and steps to end Russia’s war of aggression,” the Finnish presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The US and Russian leaders held a critical phone call on Tuesday, with the White House saying the talks on securing a ceasefire in Moscow’s invasion were “going well”.
Trump has already made clear that he is ready to discuss what parts of occupied Ukraine that Russia will be allowed to keep, saying at the weekend Moscow and Washington are talking about “dividing up certain assets”.
Ukraine’s military says it shot down 90 of 174 drones launched by Russia
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia, fought two wars with the Soviet Union during World War II after it attacked Finland.
The Nordic country ended up ceding 10 percent of its territory – including the area where Stubb’s father and grandparents were born – as part of a peace deal with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
“We in Finland understand exactly what you’re going through,” Stubb told Zelenskyy in a speech marking the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine on February 24.
“I’m sure we’re going to have to accept a peace with Putin,” he said, adding: “The support that you will see from the Finnish public … is the support of identity and historical experience.”
Helsinki ended decades of military non-alignment by joining NATO in April 2023.
Stubb proposed in early March that Ukraine automatically become a NATO member if Russia were to violate any future ceasefire agreement.
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