Europe Names Its Ukraine Negotiating Team as Russia Hedges on Giving It a Seat
Europe has spent much of the war arguing for a place at the table. On Friday it finally named who would sit there, before Moscow had agreed to pull up the chairs. At a summit in Dublin, EU leaders agreed that Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the bloc’s institutions would represent Europe at future Ukraine talks, AFP reported via France 24.
The opening came from Washington. U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, and Kushner said afterward that the next round would be expanded to include European countries, The Guardian reported. “This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner wrote on X, adding that the sides were working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the war. Witkoff told Russian state TV that “the Europeans will join at the next meeting.”
By Friday the Kremlin sounded less settled, saying it wanted to understand Europe’s “real intentions and their willingness to contribute” before deciding on its participation, according to AFP. European Council President António Costa said the bloc moved ahead anyway: “Europe must speak with one clear and united voice in all discussions that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent.”
The harder question is what Europe is willing to talk about. AFP reported that Russia is pressing to renegotiate Europe’s wider security framework, appearing to revive demands to roll back NATO. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected that framing outright, saying a European security architecture “already exists.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that debating Moscow’s security demands would mean walking into “traps,” insisting that “first we need a ceasefire.” That puts European capitals at odds not only with the Kremlin but with the way Kushner described the purpose of widening the talks.
Putin, for his part, warned Europe against sending peacekeeping troops into Ukraine after any deal, calling it a “continuation of war,” and refused to soften his territorial demands, The Guardian reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed European participation and said he hoped the agenda would include de-escalation and ceasefires, while calling the U.S. approach of discussing a new European security order with Russia “a bit strange.” He also said disruptions to Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink service, had affected the entire front line; SpaceX declined to comment. Meanwhile Russia’s bombing campaign continues heading into winter. “We don’t get any sense yet that Russia is serious about peace,” Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said.
Why it matters
A European seat would change who shapes any settlement, but the gap between Moscow’s push for a broader security deal and Europe’s ceasefire-first stance suggests the next round could stall on the agenda itself. Whether the Kremlin formally accepts the European team is the next signal to watch.