Finnish President Alexander Stubb said that his recent talks with U.S. President Donald Trump suggest the American leader is getting impatient with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin over Russia’s delays in moving toward peace in Ukraine.
The Finnish president stated this in an interview with Finnish channel YLE TV1, Bloomberg reports, according to Ukrinform.
“In my last conversation with President Trump Thursday night, there were some small indications that patience is wearing thin,” Stubb said.
He considers a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Kremlin leader in about a week and a half unlikely, as had been planned, and added that “that’s when the patience will probably run out.”
“He (Trump – ed.) is the only person Putin listens to, and frankly, the only one Putin fears,” Stubb said.
Regarding his own participation in the August 18 meeting in Washington, he noted that both Trump and Zelensky wanted him to join.
The Finnish president emphasized that during this Oval Office meeting, European leaders followed the “clear choreography” that had been worked out over the past weeks. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte opened the talks, followed by leaders of major countries.
“If the discussion takes a bad turn, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni joins in,” Stubb said, adding that his role was to conclude the negotiations and leave an impression with Trump.
“Europe’s goal is to get the US to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the form of air defense and provision of intelligence, but that the guarantees would look “very different from NATO’s Article 5,’” the Finnish president noted.
As reported, on Monday, August 18, the President of Ukraine, together with a number of European leaders, held a meeting in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss a peaceful resolution of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the future security architecture of Ukraine and Europe.
Source: President of Finland: Trump near to losing patience with Putin
