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The Kremlin said Europe must choose a leader to negotiate with Russia and gain approval from President Vladimir Putin before Moscow grants the continent a seat at Ukraine peace talks.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, told reporters Friday that Putin wanted to assess the “real intentions” of Europeans and was not committing to expanding U.S.-led negotiations.
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, said a day earlier that Putin was ready to “try” European involvement after meeting him in Moscow.
Peskov said Russia had not yet made a decision on whether to involve the Europeans, who provide almost all of Ukraine’s military and budgetary financing.
“If the Europeans have someone who is authorized to speak (on their behalf) and if they have the desire to speak, then we will do it,” Peskov said, according to Interfax. “Once we understand their real intentions and their willingness to contribute to the peace process, then we can make a decision to hold a dialogue on the Ukraine peace process in an expanded format,” he added.
Instead, EU leaders meeting in Dublin on Friday agreed that seven officials from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as the EU and NATO, would speak on behalf of the continent in what they see as technical negotiations in the near future, according to two officials briefed on the discussions.
A similar delegation – with the exception of Poland – was present in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, although Russia refused to meet with it. Kushner and the Ukrainian delegation reported to European envoys on their discussions with the Russians.
“Our European team will continue to act in close coordination and in full unity,” said António Costa, President of the European Council, after the decision was announced. “Europe must speak with one clear and united voice… This is ultimately a team effort. »
Costa said “the coming weeks will be a litmus test of Russia’s willingness to end this war.”
Russia also wants to discuss a “new long-term security architecture” in Europe as part of its conditions for ending the war, which would prevent NATO from adding new members or deploying forces east of the former Iron Curtain. This is a red line for European capitals, which have insisted that such talks could only take place after a peace deal in Ukraine.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said Thursday that Russia also wanted to discuss “some new ideas based on the lessons that we cannot help but learn from the current situation, when the collective West has taken up arms against us and does not hide its interests in using the kyiv regime to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Putin told Kushner and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday that dialogue with Europe over Ukraine was a “vicious circle” and accused kyiv’s allies of trying to prolong the war.
The Russian president held a telephone conversation with Finland’s Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre last month and said he was ready to talk to other foreign leaders.
But Putin has already indicated that he does not want to talk to European leaders unless they are prepared to take his maximalist demands to end the war as a starting point for negotiations.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Putin had not discussed the issue with Witkoff and Kushner.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said on Friday that she was the de facto person that EU states had authorized to represent them in negotiations with foreign powers, but Putin did not want to talk to her because she was too “strong”.
“All (EU) member states have actually agreed that I am the one who represents Europe when it comes to foreign and security policy,” the former Estonian prime minister told reporters. “I know the Russians don’t want me… They don’t want someone strong on the other side, because they want to assert their maximum demands.”
Peskov declined to comment on Kallas’ representation in Europe. Dmitry Medvedev, vice president of the Russian Security Council, claimed that “no one invited the Europeans to the negotiations on Ukraine” and called Kallas “stupid.”
Many EU capitals are reluctant to engage with Russia without Putin being serious about ending the conflict.
“A substantial peace deal is as important as the one that represents Europe,” Michael Martin, the Irish taoiseach, said on Friday.
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