Donald Trump is the only one who can force Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table over the war in Ukraine, Finland's president has told the BBC.
Alexander Stubb also said that Finland would never recognise occupied Crimea as part of Russia, and that he wanted to ensure Ukraine became an EU and hopefully NATO member once the war was over.
BBC Radio 4's Today programme spoke to President Stubb ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday, where he told the US president: I think we can end this war with your help.
Meanwhile, Trump said that Putin has agreed to meet face-to-face with him in Hungary.
The US leader said on Friday that Putin wants to get it ended. I think that President Zelensky wants to get it ended. Now we have to get it done.
Zelensky said in the White House that Ukraine was ready to talk in any format and wanted peace, but argued that Putin needed to be pressured into ending the war.
In August, Trump and Putin met in Alaska for a summit that did not result in a breakthrough, or yield a further meeting involving Zelensky.
Stubb said Trump had once asked him - over a game of golf - whether he could trust Putin; and Stubb's answer was no.
What we need is not so much the power of the carrot to convince Russia to the negotiating table, it's more of the stick that will bring them.
So you have to force Russia to come to the negotiating table for peace and that's the deal President Trump is trying to make.
He said Trump has been giving the carrot to President Putin, and the carrot was in Alaska, and of course now if you look at the language that he has put forward lately, there has been more stick.
Stubb was optimistic about Trump's ability, saying he believed peace negotiations had probably advanced more in the past eight months during Trump's second term than in the previous three years.
Zelensky mentioned that the war had ravaged Ukrainian territories, as he pressed for ongoing support against Russian aggression.
Stubb insisted that the only ones who could decide on the land issue are the Ukrainians themselves, reiterating Finland’s commitment to guarantee Ukraine's future territorial integrity as a sovereign nation.
As the conflict drags on, Stubb stressed the importance of economic sanctions against Russia and a robust coalition of support from Western allies for Ukraine.
