Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a new interview that President Trump seemed to be growing “impatient” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rejected a U.S. ceasefire proposal and added various conditions to a more limited deal.
Stubb, who played golf with the U.S. president on Saturday, was asked whether Trump seemed “angry with the Russian leader” during their time together this weekend.
“Angry is probably the wrong word, but impatient, that’s for sure,” Stubb said in an interview on Sky News published Monday.
Stubb said he discussed with Trump his efforts toward a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal.
“We were talking a lot about the ceasefire and the frustrations he had that Russia was not committing to it, because, of course, we’re in a situation whereby the U.S. has proposed a full ceasefire, now a partial one. Ukraine has accepted it, and Europe has backed it, and there’s only one country which is putting on new conditions: typical Russia,” Stubb said.
“So yes, there was a combination of impatience and a tad of frustration,” he continued.
Stubb echoed a refrain repeated often by members of Trump’s inner circle — saying the U.S. president is the only person who could potentially strike a peace deal.
“I came out with an impression that, obviously, he’s the only person who can broker a peace, a ceasefire, because he’s the only one that Putin is afraid of, and, in that sense, respects,” Stubb said.
The interview comes after Trump said on Sunday that he was “very angry, pissed off” at Putin for publicly questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying that kind of rhetoric is “not going in the right location” in an NBC News interview with Kristen Welker.
Trump later said that there is a “psychological deadline” for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” Trump rold reporters.
The Russian president said Friday that his Ukrainian counterpart does not have the legitimacy required for a peace deal signature and suggested an interim government is needed. Ukraine’s 2024 presidential elections were postponed due to martial law amid the war with Russia.