Golf politics US president teed up to lose patience, says Finnish leader

Donald Trump is losing patience with Vladimir Putin's stalling tactics over the Ukraine ceasefire, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, said after spending nine hours with the US president - including winning a golf competition with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday.

- Patrick Wintour

Stubb, who also spent two days with Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week in Helsinki, has suggested a deadline of 20 April for Putin to be required to comply with a full ceasefire. Stubb said a third golf partner in Florida, the Republican senator Lindsey Graham, already has a Senate bill proposing sanctions if Russia does not accept an unconditional ceasefire.

The round of golf diplomacy seemed to make a positive impression on Trump, who wrote afterwards on Truth Social: "I just played a round of Golf with Alexander Stubb, President of Finland. He is a very good player, and we won the Men's Member-Guest Golf Tournament at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach County."

Asked how he thought Trump would express his impatience with Putin, Stubb said things would be clear in a matter of days. "When you spend seven hours with someone, you at least get an intuition of the direction in which we're going."