Kremlin hedges on Europe's seat at Ukraine peace talks after US envoys' claim

Envoys say Europe will get a seat

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner said on Thursday, 12 November, that Vladimir Putin had agreed to bring European countries into the next round of Ukraine negotiations. Witkoff, who met the Russian president in Moscow with Kushner that day, told reporters after the meeting that Europeans would be present at the next session. Kushner later posted on X that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to add European partners, which would let Washington address a wider post-war security settlement for Europe alongside the territorial questions between Ukraine and Russia. Kushner did not say which Europeans would represent the continent.

Kremlin withholds confirmation

On Friday, 13 November, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had not yet decided on talks in an expanded format. He said Russia first needed to understand the real intentions of the Europeans and their readiness to contribute to the peace process. Peskov added that if Europeans chose a representative to lead dialogue with Putin and were ready for it, Russia would be ready too. He declined to comment on possible European candidates, saying new names surfaced every hour, and said Russia did not plan to change its negotiating team at this stage. He also claimed that on the first day of the Abu Dhabi negotiations, Russia showed signs of preparing a peacekeeping contingent for Ukraine.

Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's chief negotiator in Abu Dhabi, said after the latest trilateral meeting that Moscow had received no European peace initiative or concrete proposal. He added that it was unclear what there was to discuss with Europe.

Abu Dhabi talks and the Dublin meeting

Russian and Ukrainian delegations, mediated by the United States, met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 and 11 November, the first such negotiations since February. Europeans did not take part directly but held separate consultations with the Ukrainian delegation on the sidelines.

After Abu Dhabi, Kushner and Witkoff flew to Dublin, where on the night of Thursday to Friday they met Volodymyr Zelensky and advisers from several European countries, including Poland, Germany, France and Italy, along with EU institutions. According to RMF24, Poland was represented by deputy foreign minister Robert Kupiecki. Zelensky said Europeans would take part in the next talks and that the US side had made progress on admitting them. At the EU summit in Dublin on Friday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she was ready to represent the Union in negotiations with Russia, arguing that Europeans must not only sit at the table but also shape the outcome.

Moscow's strategy, according to the WSJ

RMF24, citing The Wall Street Journal, reports that two of Putin's four scenarios for the war have not delivered: Moscow has neither broken Ukrainian resistance nor pushed the Trump administration to press Kyiv into accepting Russian terms. According to the WSJ, Russian front-line advances this year are the smallest since 2022, and attempts to encircle Ukrainian positions in Donetsk oblast failed. Moscow is now focusing on the two remaining strategies, weakening the Ukrainian economy through mass strikes and counting on political shifts in Europe that could curb support for Kyiv. Strikes target energy infrastructure, warehouses, Black Sea ports and Dnipro bridges, aimed at leaving people without power, heating and water in winter. The WSJ says this could increase Ukraine's dependence on European financial aid, although current polls do not show Ukrainians more willing to accept capitulation.