Stubb: Canceling Trump-Putin meeting was "another strategic mistake" by Moscow

He said this in an interview with the Associated Press.

Stubb believes that the cancellation of Donald Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest was a serious miscalculation by Moscow. According to him, the Kremlin missed the chance to change the strategic situation.

In mid-October, the White House announced that the American president would hold talks with Putin in Budapest. However, a week later, the meeting was unexpectedly cancelled. As Stubb noted, the decision was made after a telephone conversation between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

According to the Finnish president, Rubio concluded that "the Russians have not moved one step" and therefore "it makes no sense to put President Trump in a situation where he's not going to get an agreement or anything like that."

The cancellation was another example of a strategic mistake by the Russians. They had an opportunity, but they blew it," Stubb stated.

He also noted that Trump is balancing the desire to find a path to rapprochement with Putin with the need to increase pressure on him. He is taking a similar approach, according to Stubb, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Peace talks are not relevant yet

Stubb emphasised that to achieve peace in Ukraine, Western leaders and Trump need to "increase pressure on Russia and Putin" to change their strategic thinking. He outlined three key issues without which a ceasefire is impossible:

• security guarantees for Ukraine;

• recovery of the Ukrainian economy;

• some understanding of territorial issues.

What the meeting in Budapest should have been like

on 16 October, Donald Trump had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin and announced that he was ready to meet in Budapest to negotiate an end to the war. The next day, he met with Vladimir Zelensky and urged both sides to "stop where they are."

Zelensky supported the idea of a temporary halt to fighting along the current front line. The Kremlin said that "Russia's positions are not changing."

After that, US media, citing White House sources, reported that the meeting with Putin had been postponed. Trump himself later said that he "does not want to waste time" on negotiations that will not bring results.