Newsweek in plain Finnish | Sunday 8.2.2026

Ukraine. Party support. Prime Minister Orpo. Olympics.

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Ukraine

Representatives of Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates at a meeting, with the countries’ flags in the background.

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Photo: Reuters

First, news from Ukraine.

Ukraine, Russia and the US held talks this week in Abu Dhabi to end the war in Ukraine.

The negotiations did not yield any major results. The negotiations agreed that Ukraine and Russia would exchange prisoners. Over 300 prisoners will be exchanged.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the US wants the war in Ukraine to end before the summer.

Russia continued airstrikes on Ukrainian power plants on several nights this week. In Kiev, many people were forced to stay in metro tunnels at night.

Party support

In Yle’s latest poll, the SDP is in first place with 24.9% and the National Coalition Party is in second place with 18.8%. The Centre Party rose to third place (14.3%), while the PS remained in fourth place (13.3%).

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Photo: Parliament, Petteri Sopanen / Yle and Silja Viitala / Yle, graphics: Nanna Särkkä / Yle

The topic of the next news item is party support.

The most popular party in Finland is still the Social Democratic Party (SDP). A Yle poll shows that 25 percent of Finns support the SDP. Support for the SDP has increased.

The Coalition Party is still in second place in the poll. The Coalition Party is the party of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

The third most popular party is now the Centre Party. The Centre Party overtook the Finns Party in the survey, which is now in 4th place.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo

Chairman of the Coalition Party Petteri Orpo.

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Photo: Grigory Vorobyev / Yle

Now the news about Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo wants to continue as the chairman of the National Coalition Party. Orpo announced this at the National Coalition Party Chairman’s Conference in Helsinki.

Orpo has been the chairman of the National Coalition Party since 2016.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that Finland’s employment and economy have not grown well.

Finns at the Olympics

Tero Lehterä behind the bench of the Women’s Lions in the USA match.

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Photo: Mika Kylmäniemi / All Over Press

Finally, news about the Olympics.

Several Finnish athletes have already competed at the Winter Olympics in Italy.

Kerttu Niskanen was 5th in the women’s combined cross-country skiing competition. The race was won by Frida Karlsson from Sweden.

In the men’s combined competition, the best Finn was Arsi Ruuskanen. He came in 11th place. Norwegian Johannes Hösflot Kläbo won Olympic gold.

Finland was 6th in the biathlon mixed relay. The competition was won by the French team.

In women’s ice hockey, Finland lost to the USA. The USA won the game 5-0.

Anni Kärävä was 6th in the qualification for the slopestyle competition. Kärävä will qualify for the final competition, which will be on Monday.

This was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish. See you again next week.