Relations between the US, Ukraine and its European allies have been souring since US President Donald Trump agreed to lift some sanctions from Russia – allowing it to export oil to the US.
Stubb and Støre said they had taken the initiative to continue discussions held in the Norwegian capital on 20 October, after which Witkoff travelled on to St Petersburg to meet Putin.
After the talks, Ukraine, Russia and the US agreed to resume three-way negotiations that Russia had stopped for months.
After speaking to the two Nordic leaders, Zelensky said part of their discussions with Putin had centred on the upcoming trilateral talks to be held in Abu Dhabi in November.
Zelensky said he had discussed with them “various formats for our engagement with partners in Europe that could be useful in further supporting diplomacy, our defense, and our shared security”.
Stubb and Støre are the first European leaders to contact Vladimir Putin since French President Emmanuel Macron’s conversation with him in July 2025.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “very sceptical” of Tuesday’s dialogue between her Nordic neighbours and Moscow.
“It hasn’t been co-ordinated with any of the rest of us,” she told Danish broadcaster DR.
Moscow regularly accuses European leaders of prolonging the war by supplying Ukraine with weapons.
But last weekend, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said having a European negotiator at the peace talks table would be “good”.