Europe has to take Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine seriously, according to the Finnish president.
The Republican has vowed to bring the conflict to a close within his first 24 hours of getting into the White House in January.
However Trump has not said how he intends to do that, sparking fears he would pressure Kyiv to cede occupied land to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Speaking on Bloomberg TV on Tuesday, Finland’s Alexander Stubb revealed he had spoken to Trump on the phone on Monday night.
He warned: “We in Europe and the rest of the world need to understand that Donald Trump is very serious about getting a peace deal sooner rather than later.
“There’s a window of opportunity for these negotiations between the election and inauguration day.”
Speaking at the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, Stubb said peace requirements must include territory disputes – although he prefaced that “we don’t know where things are going to settle” on this topic.
Russia still occupies around 18% of Ukraine, while Ukrainian troops are gradually being pushed out of the Russian region of Kursk after temporarily seizing it in August.
Stubb added that security guarantees, justice and reconstruction all needed to be on the agenda, too.
After Russia’s aggression against Ukraine escalated in 2022, Finland quickly applied to join Nato for protection.
Finland’s 800-mile border with Russia now makes up more than half of Nato’s eastern flank.
It means if Moscow were to attack Finland, all Nato members would rally behind Finland and help defend it.
Like much of the West, Finland has also been funding Ukraine – which is still not a Nato member – ever since Russia invaded, providing military aid and financial backing.
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin over the years, once calling his invasion of Ukraine “savvy” and genius”.
The Republican did not deny reports the two had spoken on the phone on multiple occasions since Trump left the White House in 2021, but said, if they had spoken, it was a “smart thing”.
Meanwhile, a Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev told reporters last week that Trump’s victory was bad news for Ukraine.
