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Finland's Stubb says he hopes Trump's patience with Putin will run out soon — Finnish media
Finnish president Alexander Stubb has been speaking at a press conference before the country’s ambassadors’ conference in Helsinki.
In comments reported by the Finnish public broadcaster, Yle, he said that he hoped Trump’s patience with Putin would run out soon.
He insisted that Finland and other European countries “will do everything we can do achieve lasting peace.”
He also hinted that the only way to force Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine would be by hitting his allies, qupping “the only ones who can persuade Putin to make peace are more in the east than in the west.”
In further comments reported by Ilta-Sanomat, he added that the current discussions were focusing on the extent of security guarantees that would be offered to Ukraine.
Stubb also said he warned Trump that Putin was deploying a “typical” Russian delaying tactic to avoid meeting Zelenskyy.
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Morning opening: Is this meeting on?
Jakub Krupa
US president Donald Trump warned last night that there could be “consequences” if Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy do not meet. Who would face these consequences and what they could possibly entail is not exactly clear.
Despite much speculation about the timing and the potential location for the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting, we do not appear to be any closer to it actually happening as Russian attacks on Ukraine continue.
Asked why Putin didn’t want to meet with Zelenskyy, he offered this explanation: “Because he doesn’t like him.”
Trump revealed that he had talked to Putin since his last week’s meeting with European leaders again.
Asked how the conversation talks went, Trump said:
“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation. And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and I get very angry about it.”
On a more technical level, US state secretary Marco Rubio spoke with his European counterparts last night, discussing potential security guarantees for the wartorn country should the meeting go ahead and the two leaders somehow managed to find a way to agree a peace deal. Once again, we are yet to see what emerges from these talks.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha praised the US leadership on this issue, but “reiterated … that security guarantees must be concrete, legally binding, and effective.”
But Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski warned the leaders that “the Kremlin has not abandoned its maximalist aims from the beginning of the war,” and insisted that the only way to get Moscow round to the negotiating table is through further political, economic and military pressure on its interests.
Let’s see what today brings us on these two issues.
Separately, I will also keep an eye on the latest in France as the country’s embattled prime minister looks likely to be ousted and his government toppled next month in a high-stakes confidence vote that could plunge the EU’s second-biggest economy into even deeper political crisis.
We should also get some new language on the EU-US trade arrangements, with Trump threatening overnight to impose tariffs and exports bans on countries with taxes and laws deemed to be discriminating against US tech companies. His longstanding criticism of the EU’s rulebook is well known, so this latest warning will probably draw another deep sigh from EU officials.
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Tuesday, 26 August 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
