Kallas presses for EU role in Ukraine talks as European representation remains undecided

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner want this week’s talks to be the last without Europe’s full participation, Politico reported, citing unnamed US officials. One official said the proposal was to bring Europeans into the discussions after the current three-way meeting.

Russia has said it will not hold direct talks with Europeans this week, according to Reuters. It has objected to their involvement in the current negotiations, although it has said EU representatives could join at a later stage, the Associated Press reported. The timing of any such participation remains unresolved.

The talks in Abu Dhabi are the first involving Russia, Ukraine and the US since February. The first day ended after nearly four hours, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported. Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service said discussions were expected to resume on Wednesday, according to AP.

Before the three-way talks began, Ukrainian and US representatives met officials from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission, Ukrainian delegation head Rustem Umerov said. Witkoff said afterwards that participants had discussed future security arrangements and shared the goal of moving towards broader talks involving European partners, European Pravda reported.

There are differences over what those security discussions should cover and when they should happen. An unnamed source in the Russian delegation told Reuters that a wider European security framework should be the main focus. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said broader European security talks should come only after a ceasefire in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Last month, President Donald Trump said his decision to waive new sanctions on Russia was intended to keep Moscow at the negotiating table. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the waiver.

European leaders also face the question of who would represent them in future talks. Politico reported that EU leaders would discuss the issue at an informal summit in Dublin on Friday 13 November.

Update

US envoy Steve Witkoff said Europeans would join the next meeting after he and fellow envoy Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 12 November. The pair then travelled to Dublin to brief Zelensky.

Zelensky said European representatives would be part of the negotiations rather than remain on the sidelines. “They will have a voice,” he told reporters. The US and Ukrainian announcements did not specify who would represent Europe or set out the precise format of its participation.

Kushner said he had told Putin that a European presence at the table was important and that the Russian leader was “willing to give it a try”. Kushner later said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to expand the next round to include European partners.

Earlier, Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov had confirmed that US-Russia-Ukraine talks would continue but played down the prospect of Europeans joining them. Moscow has previously resisted their participation in direct negotiations.

The announcement follows two days of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi. Zelensky said his team met American and European representatives there, but European advisers were not part of the main three-way talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no contacts between the Russian delegation and EU representatives had been planned or taken place.

The Abu Dhabi talks produced an agreement on a prisoner exchange, but significant differences remain. Putin said Russia considered its prospective border with Ukraine to include four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed in 2022 but never fully controlled. Kyiv refuses to give up the rest of the eastern Donbas region.

Update

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday that she and European Council President António Costa should represent the EU in talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. But European leaders are still debating who should speak for Europe more broadly, and whether to send one person or a team.

Arriving at an informal EU summit in Dublin on 13 November, Kallas said the arrangement for her and Costa had been agreed in 2024. She urged leaders to focus on the substance of the negotiations rather than spend time choosing the EU’s representatives. The prime ministers of Latvia and Estonia backed her position, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Kallas had referred the previous day to discussions about the EU’s top jobs in June 2024 and to the pair’s treaty roles. She also acknowledged that EU leaders could choose differently.

The public minutes of the June 2024 European Council meeting record Costa’s election as council president and identify Kallas as the preferred candidate for foreign policy chief. They do not explicitly appoint them as negotiators for Ukraine peace talks, although that does not rule out another agreement. EU treaty provisions give both officials general roles representing the bloc in foreign and security policy; they do not specify a delegation for the next Ukraine talks.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday that Europeans would join the next meeting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Europe would have a negotiating team and a voice at the table. Neither specified which countries or how many would take part, the Associated Press reported.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said representation could not be limited to the EU, pointing to support for Ukraine from countries including the UK and Norway. He said he hoped a decision could be reached within a week or two.

US envoy Jared Kushner said after meeting Vladimir Putin that the Russian president was willing to try European participation. The Kremlin said on Friday that Europe could take part if Moscow was convinced it genuinely intended to contribute to peace, ANP and Reuters reported.