Norway and Finland leaders hold rare call with Putin
Finland and Norway have held a rare joint call with Vladimir Putin, the first direct contact between European leaders and the Russian president in more than a year.
Finland's President Alexander Stubb and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have held a joint telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, lasting around ninety minutes.
The leaders said the aim was to pass on messages directly about future peace negotiations. It is the first direct contact between European leaders and Putin since France's president spoke to him in July last year.
Both leaders described the conversation as frank, but said big differences in views remained and no breakthrough was reached. They stressed they were speaking only for their own countries, not on behalf of Europe as a whole.
The call was prepared in consultation with Ukraine and the United States, ahead of planned talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine's president was briefed afterwards and thanked the two leaders for their active support.
Not every European capital welcomed the move, with Denmark and Sweden saying the step had not been coordinated with other leaders. The Kremlin said the leaders had agreed to stay in direct phone contact.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.