Finnish President Alexander Stubb visited the first Nordic head of state Donald Trump at his home ground in Florida this weekend. During the visit last Saturday, the two leaders played a golf competition together. At the same time, they took the opportunity to discuss the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with British The Guardian Stubb says now that the American president’s patience with Vladimir Putin’s actions around the ceasefire in Ukraine is ending.
– Russia has violated the limited ceasefire and I believe that the US president is losing patience with Russia. I think this is good news for the negotiations, he tells The Guardian.
Prompts to deadline
The Finnish president also states that he urged Trump to put a deadline on a date for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, a ceasefire should come into force by April 20, when Trump sat as president for three months.
Stubb also suggested that the United States put pressure on Russia through sanctions, if a ceasefire is not met.
Donald Trump has talked about the golf round in positive terms. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he writes that he is looking forward to strengthening cooperation between the US and Finland.
On Sunday, Trump stated in a phone call with NBC News that he was “very angry” after Vladimir Putin’s play earlier this week, where the Russian president suggested that a UN-led administration take over the board in Ukraine before signing any peace agreement.
“If Russia and I cannot reach an agreement to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it is Russia’s fault, then I will put additional customs on all the oil that comes from Russia,” Trump said in the conversation.
“Begins to see Russia for whom they are”
To The Guardian, Stubb says he thinks the United States is starting to see Russia “for who they are”.
– A full ceasefire has been approved by the United States, by Ukraine and by Europe, but not by Russia, he says.
At the same time, Donald Trump has argued that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj tried to withdraw from the mineral agreement, and threatened that it would pose “big, major problems”.
On Sunday, Alexander Stubb traveled to Britain to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The same night he also spoke on the phone with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyj, who in a post on X thanked the Finnish president for his attempt at diplomacy.