Rare call with Putin on Ukraine was ‘substantive’ but ‘significant differences’ remain, say Finnish and Norwegian leaders – Europe live

Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Støre have defended their independent talk with Russia’s president after criticism from Denmark’s PM Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has warned that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “testing us and testing Nato’s resolve” as he condemned

Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Støre have defended their independent talk with Russia’s president after criticism from Denmark’s PM Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has warned that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “testing us and testing Nato’s resolve” as he condemned hybrid threats and “state-sponsored terrorism” from Russia. Streeting repeated his recent warnings that “we have to be ready for a scenario in which the United Kingdom and the Nato alliance finds itself at war with Russia”. He went on: Not because we want war – we have no quarrel with the Russian people, and we have no desire for war with Russia; Nato is a defensive alliance – but when Putin gives assurances that he has no intentions to provoke a war with Nato, we are reminded of what he said about Ukraine only days before the invasion.

The more ready we are to face against Russia, to defend every inch of Nato territory, the less likely we are to find ourselves in that scenario. Poland is one of our greatest and certainly our most reliable friend in Europe, and we value and treasure this friendship very much. Continue reading...