Russia said Friday it had not yet agreed to let Europeans join US-mediated talks on ending the war in Ukraine, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and American envoy Jared Kushner said Europe would take part in the next round.
During talks held in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, European envoys held separate meetings with the Ukrainian delegation but did not participate in the US-led meetings between Kyiv and Moscow teams.
After a debrief with the US envoys, Zelensky said Europeans would take part in the next talks, while Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said a peace deal could not be concluded “without Europeans being at the table.”
But the Kremlin indicated it had not yet agreed.
“Once we understand their real intentions and their willingness to contribute to the peace process, then we can make a decision on holding talks in an expanded format,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“If the Europeans really do have someone who is at least authorized in some way to talk, and if the Europeans really do have the desire to do so, then, of course, we will be ready to talk to them,” Peskov said.
Russia’s lead negotiator in Abu Dhabi, Vladimir Medinsky, said after the latest trilateral meeting that Moscow had “not received a single peace initiative or a single concrete peace proposal from European countries.”
It was “unclear what there is to discuss” with Europe, he added.
