Abu Dhabi. After talks between Moscow and Kiev, the USA now wants to bring Europe on board in efforts to end the war in Ukraine. “We have to have the Europeans at the table,” said US negotiator Jared Kushner at a press conference after two days of negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
In the capital of the United Arab Emirates, teams from Russia and Ukraine negotiated with each other under US mediation for the first time in more than eight months. The only concrete result that was initially announced was another large prisoner exchange. In addition to Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, special envoy Steve Witkoff from the USA was in Abu Dhabi.
Kushner and Witkoff now want to meet Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. The aim is to transform the three-way talks between Russia, the USA and Ukraine into a “multilateral format”. The EU and NATO must be an “integral part” of negotiations to end the war, said Kushner. However, the Russians have their own “wishes and fears” when it comes to the question of Europe’s participation in the talks.
Moscow's head of delegation Vladimir Medinsky criticized European representatives who were in Abu Dhabi during the three-way talks. With regard to the EU's arms deliveries to Ukraine, he once again accused the West of being involved in the killing of civilians. “If their conscience awakens, then they can become participants in a negotiation process,” he said. According to Medinski, the Russian side has had no contact with the European representatives present in the Emirates.
At the same time, Kushner called on Europeans to end the debate over who could represent them in talks. “If Europe could identify a person to speak on its behalf, that would be a greater success than getting the Russians to participate.”
With his comments, Kushner put his finger on an open wound. The question of who should be at the table in the Ukraine negotiations for the association of states has long been discussed in the EU - especially if there are to be talks at the top level. At the beginning of 2025, EU Council President António Costa discussed the appointment of a special representative for the peace negotiations after bilateral consultations with all 27 capitals. However, there was ultimately no agreement among the group of heads of state and government to implement the idea.
Most recently, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a binding decision on who will represent Europe in negotiations to end the Ukraine war. The issue will now come to the table next Friday at the informal summit in Dublin.
Meanwhile, a senior EU official emphasized that from Brussels' perspective there was actually no acute pressure to act. Accordingly, if the worst comes to the worst, Costa, as President of the European Council, could simply take over the EU's external representation in Ukraine talks. What is crucial is that there is a unified European message. If this is presented by several European actors, it must be coordinated.
There were no details from the Ukrainian side about possible Russian territorial claims. “Issues that were raised during the negotiations are the subject of the negotiations,” said the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, when asked whether Russia had again called for a Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass. As soon as a result is available, it will be announced “publicly”.
Medinsky made it clear that Russia would not back down from its demands. "Every inch of our land will be returned to Russia. One way or another," the chief negotiator told Russian journalists. He left open which areas Medinski, who was born in Smila in central Ukraine, meant by this.
The focus of the meeting was security issues, Medinski continued. It was therefore about guarantees for Ukraine, but also for Russia after the end of the war. The security of one country should not come at the expense of the need for protection in the other country, said Medinski. Russia started the war against Ukraine, among other things, because it sees its security threatened by Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership.
