Europe Settles on Negotiating Team for Russia-Ukraine Talks

National security advisers from the EU and the E5 format – France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK – will represent Europe in upcoming Russia-Ukraine peace talks, European leaders decided on Friday, Nov. 13, even as the Kremlin has yet to explicitly confirm it will accept European participation. Citing a senior EU official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg reported that the advisers will take part in any future negotiations at the technical level. No leaders had yet been appointed to represent Europe at the political level, he said.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The decision followed two days of meetings in Dublin, with support for Ukraine remaining central to the agenda. Ahead of the meetings, President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on European leaders to name envoys for the renewed US-led talks, saying Moscow had become more open to European participation. Costa confirms EU participation Speaking at a press conference after an informal meeting of EU heads of state or government in Dublin on Friday, Nov. 13, European Council President Antonio Costa confirmed that Europe’s negotiating team would consist of the EU’s institutions and the E5. “Europe must speak with one clear and united voice in all discussions that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent,” Costa said. “This is ultimately a team effort.” Europe’s position for the talks, according to Costa, was that only Ukraine can decide on matters concerning its territory and sovereignty. Other Topics of Interest The 1027th Anti-Aircraft Missile and Artillery Regiment carried out the interception, the General Staff said, as Russia has increasingly used faster jet-powered drones. The EU, he said, should play a central role in Ukraine’s European future and reconstruction, and security guarantees should be addressed by the Coalition of the Willing in close coordination with NATO. “The weeks ahead will be a decisive test of Russia’s readiness to bring this war to an end,” Costa said, adding that Moscow’s record of escalation and strikes on civilians appeared to suggest otherwise. The decision came even though Russia has not fully committed to giving Europe a seat at the table. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner said on Thursday, Nov. 12, that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to European participation. However, the Kremlin said it first wanted to understand Europe’s “real intentions and their willingness to contribute,” AFP reported. Dispute over the agenda While the question of who will represent Europe is settled, the EU still has to decide what exactly it is prepared to discuss with Moscow. The Kremlin appears intent on reopening talks on Europe’s broader security framework, including its long-standing demand that NATO withdraw its forces and infrastructure from countries that joined the alliance after 1997. Kushner said bringing Europe on board would “allow us to address the broader post-war European security arrangements,” while the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected the idea. “Russia wants to talk about questions of European security architecture. We do not need to discuss that, it already exists,” Merz said, according to AFP. Kallas appears to be sidelined So far, it remains unclear whether EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will take part in the talks. AFP reported that she appeared to have been left out of the negotiating lineup, though Kallas herself suggested she still expects to play a role. Speaking to reporters in Dublin, she pushed back against Russian objections to her role. “All the member states actually agreed that I’m the one representing Europe in foreign and security policy,” she said. “I know that the Russians don’t want me, but do we have a say in who is representing Russia? No, we don’t.” Moscow’s objections were part of a familiar negotiating strategy, Kallas argued. “The Russians don’t want anybody strong on the other side because they want to push through their maximum demands, like they have always done,” she said. She described the Kremlin’s tactics as presenting threats and ultimatums, using force and then waiting for the West to offer concessions. “If you negotiate with anybody, you want the other side to be as weak as possible so that you can get what you want,” she said. “If we give them that right, we are actually giving them leverage that they shouldn’t have.” According to Kallas, Kushner had “finally” acknowledged a point she had reportedly been making for over a year – that Europe would be needed to implement any deal between Russia and Ukraine and therefore had to be at the table. “But I hope that we are not just at the table, but that we are actually really influencing the outcome of these negotiations,” she said. ‘The path to peace will not be easy’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated that keeping up support for Ukraine, while maintaining maximum pressure on Russia, was the best way to bring Moscow to the negotiating table. “The path to peace will not be easy,” she said, “but we will remain united, as we have been over the last five years, in our support for Ukraine, and with the end goal clear in our minds.” Yet despite days of talks in Abu Dhabi, Moscow and Dublin this week, Putin made clear during his meeting with the US envoys on Thursday, Nov. 12, that the Kremlin would not soften its demands, AFP reported. “We don’t get any sense yet that Russia is serious about peace,” Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said.