Finland President says Donald Trump has set deadline for Putin to agree peace – and reveals when
Alexander Stubb's comments come as Donald Trump appears to sour on Putin, with the US President saying in a weekend interview that he was "pi***d off" with his Russian counterpart
The President of Finland has suggested Donald Trump set a key date for Vladimir Putin to abide by the terms of a peace deal in Ukraine. The Russian despot and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky provisionally agreed to a Black Sea ceasefire earlier this month in separate negotiations with the US in Saudi Arabia, pledging not to hit each other's energy facilities.
But the US president has so far failed to extract more detailed pledges from the two world leaders. With no deadline for the ceasefire on the horizon, they have continued to fire volleys at one another while trading public barbs - with some landing Putin in hot water with the US President who has, until now, appeared on his side.
Finland's leader has now waded into the fray, with Alexander Stubb proposing a convenient date for Mr Trump to enforce. Mr Stubb said during a surprise trip to the US on Saturday that April 20 would be the best day for the Black Sea ceasefire, with the date intersecting multiple occasions, including one especially important to the Commander-in-Chief.
April 20 is Easter and marks Mr Trump's third month following his January 20 inauguration. Speaking on Sunday from London, the PM told Finnish reporters the two leaders had discussed the war in Ukraine.
He added he reiterated Finland's support for the wider European continent and Ukraine, and holding out the fact that Russia had solely instigated the three-year-old conflict. He went on to urge Mr Trump to set an April deadline for a ceasefire "without any kind of conditions".
He said: "A ceasefire must be achieved in time, and in order for it to be achieved in time, a deadline is needed. And our outcome is that 20 April would be a good time for a full ceasefire without any kind of conditions."
Mr Stubb spoke as two people were killed and another 25 people were injured in and around Kharkhiv following Russian strikes on Saturday night. Ukrainian officials said Russia carried out more air strikes on the city on Sunday morning, injuring a further two people in strikes that left Ukraine's second largest settlement in flames.
Further dashing plans for a ceasefire were accusations from Russia's defence ministry on Sunday that Ukraine had attacked energy sites in the Bryansk border region with drones and artillery.
The defence ministry condemned the alleged attacks in a statement claiming it was Kyiv that had failed to commit to "obligations" of a ceasefire. The ministry said: "The continuation of deliberate attacks by the Ukrainian army on Russia’s energy facilities is evidence of the Kyiv regime’s complete lack of commitment to its obligations regarding settling the conflict in Ukraine."
The latest raids follow a stern statement from Mr Trump over the weekend condemning Putin for doubting Mr Zelensky's credibility in which he said he was "pi***d off". Speaking to NBC News in a phonecall, he said he was "very angry" for doubting the Ukrainian premier, adding that Putin's calls for a transitional government in Ukraine were "not going in the right direction".
He said: "If I feel we're in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pi***d off, when Putin said yesterday that - you know, when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy's credibility, because that's not going in the right direction."