Kremlin plays down Europe's role in peace talks after Witkoff claims

US envoy Steve Witkoff said President Vladimir Putin had agreed to let European representatives join the next round of Ukraine peace talks, but Russian officials played down the prospect of a breakthrough after the meeting, Sky TG24 and Adnkronos reported. Putin told the US envoys it was up to Europeans to decide whether they wanted peace or war, Adnkronos reported.

Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Thursday morning for talks with Putin, Euronews reported, in what was Witkoff's tenth visit to Russia since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. "They are our partners and it's essential for us that they take part," Witkoff said of the Europeans, according to Sky TG24.

The meeting followed two days of US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, the first trilateral negotiations in nine months, which produced an agreement in principle on a prisoner exchange but left territory, security guarantees and Europe's role unresolved, Euronews reported. Kushner said he wanted Putin's "blessing" to bring European representatives into the process. Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the talks covered steps towards a wider peace agreement, writing on social media that the first step was to end the war and secure guarantees for Ukraine.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russia's delegation in Abu Dhabi, dismissed the idea of early European involvement, saying Europeans would be allowed to join once they "develop a conscience," and accused European governments of being complicit in "a collective deception of the Ukrainian people," Euronews reported.

At a European Political Community summit in Dublin, Irish foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee said it was "very clear that Russia doesn't want Europe around the table," but that leaders should not get bogged down on which individual would represent them, adding that EU leaders would discuss the question at a European Council meeting the next day, TheJournal.ie reported. French President Emmanuel Macron told the same summit that European support for Ukraine was critical because "there is no more US support," TheJournal.ie reported.

Zelensky told European leaders in Dublin that the US-Russia talks reached beyond Ukraine's own security guarantees to a new security arrangement between Europe and Russia, and urged Europe to watch the negotiations closely, Adevărul reported. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the priority had to remain stopping the war before any wider talks on Europe's security architecture, Adevărul reported.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said it was "very difficult" to say whether peace in Ukraine was closer, and said Russia had lost more than 50,000 troops killed or severely wounded in October alone, a toll Rutte said was comparable to US military losses over the whole of the 14-year Vietnam War, Le Figaro and Moldova 1 reported.

Witkoff and Kushner travelled to Dublin after the Moscow meeting to brief Zelensky at the summit, Euronews reported. Zelensky said he hoped the envoys would return with concrete proposals, adding that while he remained sceptical, "there is hope."

European Council President Antonio Costa told reporters in Dublin that the EU was ready to engage in the talks and had the right person to represent it, though he declined to say who. Costa said the European Commission would propose covering part of Ukraine's estimated €70 billion financing need for 2027. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said he believed the Americans themselves recognised the value of a European voice at the negotiating table, Sky TG24 reported.