Kremlin Rejects European Role as France Says It Will Attend
France's foreign minister said Europe will be present at US-mediated Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, days after the Kremlin said there was no place for European powers. Russia is sending a more senior delegation than before.
The Kremlin rejects a European role in US-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, but France's foreign minister said Sunday that European officials will turn up anyway. The meetings are set for Tuesday and Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates.
"France will be there and will ensure that Europe's voice is heard," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio. He did not say who would represent Paris. Nor did he say whether French or other European officials would join the negotiations directly or simply observe.
The sessions had been presented as a three-way format between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov ruled out a European role, saying the trilateral format had already been agreed.
Speaking to a Russian news channel on Friday, Peskov accused European governments of failing to decide who speaks for them. He also acknowledged that security talks would at some point require Europe's involvement.
Fourth round under Trump
This will be the fourth round of talks between the two countries brokered by the Trump administration. It is the first since the Geneva meetings in February. Earlier rounds made little progress, and the chances of a breakthrough have shrunk as the administration focused on its war with Iran.
Moscow agreed to return to the table only after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October. Putin then announced the release of an American prisoner. That looked like a gesture to President Donald Trump, who had lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports. Ukraine vehemently opposed those fuel sales, arguing they helped replenish Moscow's war chest.
Witkoff has said the agenda will include postwar security arrangements, de-escalation of the conflict and humanitarian issues. The talks follow a limited ceasefire, helped along by First Lady Melania Trump, that allowed humanitarian aid into a town inside Russian-occupied Ukraine.
A more senior Russian team
Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Putin aide who has taken part in most talks with Ukraine since March 2022, will again lead Russia's delegation. For the first time, Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin will join him. So will Yury Zhigarlovsky, a deputy head of the General Staff's operations directorate, and military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
The lineup could indicate Moscow is readier than before to tackle thorny political and military questions. The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, suggested that some of the same officials have previously sought to slow down talks.
On Thursday, Trump met Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev. He said a coming agreement was "going to involve more than Ukraine" and that it "might involve all of Europe."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday he had not been given details of the agreement Trump referred to. He invoked the 1945 Yalta conference, where Allied leaders settled Europe's division without the involvement of several affected countries. "For me, it's not simple, and it can be dangerous," Zelenskyy said.
