The Kremlin said on Friday that Europe must show it is ready to contribute to the Ukraine peace process before any decision is made on letting Europeans join the negotiations.
"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.
The comment suggests Russia has not yet committed to including Europeans in the next round of talks, despite U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner saying on Thursday, after meeting President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, that he had agreed to their participation. The two envoys then flew to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking at the EU summit in Dublin, said it was not up to Russia to say who should represent the EU in peace talks. "They don't want anybody strong on the other side because they want to push through their maximum demands," she said. Kallas also warned Europe against walking into Russian "traps" by negotiating a broader security architecture before a ceasefire, saying reaching a ceasefire had to come first.
Putin said on Thursday that the United States must work with its European allies to understand whether they wanted peace or war in Ukraine. Peskov said Moscow would be open to some form of contacts with Europe before any participation in talks, but that no concrete discussions had taken place. He declined to comment on French President Emmanuel Macron as a possible interlocutor, saying different candidates were being named "every hour."
The talks so far have involved Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials, who met in Abu Dhabi this week for the first time in nine months. Both sides said some progress was made, but there was no sign of a major breakthrough on key issues such as territory. Russia says it wants a full peace settlement rather than a ceasefire, while Ukraine has refused to give up territory in the eastern Donbas region that it still holds. European leaders in Dublin also debated who should speak for Europe at the table, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pressing for a single EU envoy and a decision by Friday.
