Moscow (Moscow Times) - 
Russia on Monday pushed back against European involvement in upcoming peace talks, insisting that a planned meeting in Abu Dhabi this week with Ukrainian and U.S. representatives will exclude officials from the European Union.
“As for the presence of Europeans, you know that the Americans have their own channels of communication with the Europeans, as do the Ukrainians,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked whether Europe had secured a spot at the negotiation table.
American and Ukrainian negotiators are “in all likelihood constructing their own coordination mechanism” with European representatives, Peskov added.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier on Monday that the “EU will be present alongside our partners” at the upcoming peace talks, which take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. She did not provide further details.
A European official told AFP that national security representatives from the EU, NATO, as well as France, Germany and the UK plan to be in the UAE capital during the negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to confirm European involvement in the upcoming talks by saying he held a call with von der Leyen on Monday, during which they “coordinated our positions regarding the meeting in Abu Dhabi.”
“We are doing everything to ensure the trilateral format delivers results,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Ukraine’s European allies have voiced growing concerns that the Trump administration might try to negotiate over their heads by working directly with Russia on a post-war security arrangement.
In an apparent push to reassert Europe’s place in the conversation, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb spoke over the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to discuss the Ukraine war.
That call was met with some criticism from other European officials, who argue that they do not believe Russia wants peace with Ukraine or Europe.
At the talks in Abu Dhabi this week, Kremlin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, an arch-conservative who previously served as Russia’s culture minister, will once again serve as the chief negotiator of the Russian delegation.