HELSINKI: The Finnish president used a call with Vladimir Putin on Friday to encourage the Russian leader to speak to his Ukrainian counterpart.
Sauli Niinisto(pix) of Finland, which borders Russia, “brought up, once more, President Zelensky’s preparedness to talk directly with President Putin,“ Niinisto’s office said in a statement.
During the one-hour call, Niinisto “underscored the need to achieve an immediate ceasefire and to ensure a safe evacuation of civilians through humanitarian corridors,“ his office added.
The call to the Kremlin came hours after Niinisto also spoke by phone to Zelensky about the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Russian invasion.
Niinisto has long been a staunch advocate of maintaining dialogue with Putin, and the two countries share a 1,340 kilometres (830 miles) border, the longest border with Russia in the EU.
Putin has so far rejected Zelensky's calls for the two leaders to speak since the start of the Russian assault on Ukraine on 24 February.
On Monday Turkey's president Erdogan offered to host a mediation summit to secure a way out of the war which has claimed thousands of Ukrainian civilian lives.
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in response that Putin was not against meeting with Zelensky, but added that first the two countries' negotiators should lay the groundwork by conducting talks in Belarus.-AFP
