Merz urges Trump to avoid surprises as Kremlin withholds Europe's seat in Ukraine talks

A plea for European inclusion

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz used an EU summit in Dublin on 13 November to ask Donald Trump not to spring surprises on the Ukraine process. Merz said some people at the summit feared a repeat of the Anchorage summit, the August 2025 meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska that European leaders saw as a turning point and that caught them off guard. He asked Washington to keep Europe within the team working alongside Ukraine. Merz said an agreement with the Americans on European participation had been stated clearly on Thursday evening, 12 November. Leaders of the EU's 27 member states also discussed in Dublin whether Europe should be represented by one person or by a team. According to the AP, senior EU officials and politicians have been proposed, but no consensus exists yet, and the exact duties of such a role remain unclear and divisive, although governments broadly agree Europe must join the ongoing negotiations.

Moscow keeps its veto in place

Kyiv and Washington said on Thursday, 12 November, that Russia had green-lit European participation in the next round of talks. On 13 November Moscow clarified that it had not yet lifted its veto on that participation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow first wants to understand the true intentions of the Europeans before deciding on a broader negotiating format. Merz called this the Kremlin's usual game. Putin, speaking after meeting the US envoys, said Russia had never opposed dialogue with Europe and accused Europeans of cutting it off. He also warned that any foreign troops deployed to protect the front line in Ukraine would be attacked, and said he would like the United States to work with Europe to establish whether Europeans want war or peace.

Talks, envoys and a prisoner swap

Two days of Ukraine-Russia talks under US mediation took place in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November. On 12 November, envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow, and reports differ on the length of that meeting: more than two hours in one account and more than four hours in another. Kushner and Witkoff then headed to Dublin to brief Volodymyr Zelensky. Kushner wrote on X that both sides had agreed to widen the next round to include European partners, while acknowledging that important differences persist and that the schedule and details would be announced soon. He added that a wider format could address European security arrangements for the post-war period alongside territorial questions between Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky said Europeans would take part rather than remaining separate, as they had in Abu Dhabi, and said the prisoner exchange would be the largest ever. The Kremlin has not confirmed that Putin accepted including Europe.

Fighting continues on both sides

Russian bombardments again targeted Kyiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia, and Ukrainian authorities said attacks on energy infrastructure caused power cuts in 12 regions. On the Russian side, a Ukrainian attack hit an industrial zone in the Volgograd region. The regional governor of Belgorod said a Ukrainian drone struck a car in the region, killing a 12-year-old child, and that the child's mother was injured and taken to hospital in critical condition. The war began with the Russian offensive in February 2022, and according to SAPO it has killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides, making it the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.