HELSINKI: The Finnish Foreign Ministry says that the United States and Russia held secret talks over Ukraine in Finland in June.

Ministry spokesman Vesa Hakkinen said that the ministry helped organise the meeting on the island of Boisto off the southern Finnish coast but declined to give more information. Earlier this month, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto met President Vladimir Putin and travelled to Ukraine for talks with President Petro Poroshenko, leading to speculation that he was acting on behalf of the European Union. Niinisto’s office said on Tuesday that he was not involved in the secret June talks between the US and Russia.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014