Kremlin Says Europe Must Show Readiness to Contribute to Peace Process Before Joining Talks

Russia said on Friday that Europe must show it is ready to contribute to the Ukraine peace process before joining the next round of negotiations being mediated by the United States.

U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said on Thursday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to include European representatives in the next round of negotiations.

Talks this week involved representatives from Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington, who met in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for the first time since February.

“Once we understand their genuine intention and readiness to contribute to the peace process, then it ​will be possible to make a decision on holding dialogue on a Ukrainian settlement in an expanded format,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Nov. 13 when asked whether talks would soon resume involving Europeans.

Peskov said Moscow would be open to some form of contact with Europe before any European participation in peace negotiations, but no concrete discussions ‌had taken place.

Kushner and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff held trilateral negotiations with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi before traveling to Moscow for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then on to Dublin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Both sides have now agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners,” Kushner said in a Nov. 12 post on X.

“This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia. A lasting end to the fighting requires credible security guarantees, deconfliction mechanisms, and reciprocal de-escalation commitments that reduce the risk of future conflict.”

Significant differences remain between the parties, Kushner added, but said the United States was encouraged by the progress made so far.

Moscow Meeting

During the meeting in the Kremlin between the Russian and U.S. delegations on Thursday, Putin said he was ready to work with European representatives.

“As for the Europeans, we have never been opposed to dialogue with Europe, and we have never broken it off. They were the ones who terminated dialogue with the Russian Federation,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

“We would very much like you, gentlemen, and the American administration as a whole to work with your European allies so that they finally make up their minds about what they want: peace or war in Ukraine. And we are, of course, ready to work with them,” he added.

He said that the notion of Europe sending troops to Ukraine once a peace deal was concluded was unacceptable, would be viewed as a threat to Russia’s security, and would trigger an immediate resumption of war.

Ceasefire

Standing alongside Kushner and Witkoff in Dublin on Thursday, Zelenskyy told reporters that European involvement in the peace process was important for security guarantees and prosperity.

“We will be [a] member of [the] EU in the future, and that’s why it’s very important,” he added.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said European representatives were needed to implement any deal between Ukraine and Russia.

“The most important is that first there has to be ceasefire,” she said in a video posted to X on Nov. 13. “Any kind of other discussion about the European security architecture will just take the attention away from the fact that we first need a ceasefire to see that Russians have any kind of will to have peace.”

Russia has said it wants a full peace settlement, not a ceasefire.

Reuters contributed to this report.