Kremlin rules out Europe’s participation in Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi

The Kremlin has stated that European representatives will not be invited to the next round of technical negotiations between Ukraine, the US, and Russia, which is expected in November in Abu Dhabi.

This is reported by Hromadske.

The statement was made on Wednesday, October 28. Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, said that Kyiv will still seek a way to involve Europe, and noted that Ukraine will not refuse a trilateral meeting if Washington insists on such a format.

Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, told the state television channel Vesti that the negotiations will resume in a trilateral format and there are no plans to invite Europeans to the table.

“They can get in there if they buy tickets, but no one is going to invite them to the negotiating table,” he said, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.

According to Ushakov, the three countries agreed to meet without Europe’s participation, Hromadske writes.

Ushakov also said that the topic of Europe’s participation was not raised during Putin’s 90-minute phone call on Tuesday, October 27, with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Al Jazeera reports, citing Interfax. Stubb presented a different version. Speaking at a session of the Nordic Council in Helsinki, he stated that European countries will participate in the negotiations in Abu Dhabi in November. In addition, Ushakov did not confirm the date named by Zelensky — November 10 — and said it would be announced shortly.

Zelensky spoke at a press conference together with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten. According to him, the negotiations will first take place in the format of a “trilateral meeting of technical groups.” He also added: “From the very beginning we have been working on how to involve Europe,” Ukrainska Pravda reports. Zelensky emphasized that without Europe, neither security guarantees nor the country’s reconstruction are possible.

“If the Americans say ‘no’ and this time it will be only a trilateral meeting, we will not miss this opportunity to meet,” he said, adding that the process must move toward peace “in any format.”

Zelensky said that the trilateral negotiations will take place in the United Arab Emirates between November 6 and 10. He also said that Ukraine is drawing up a list of European representatives who could take part in them. According to him, national security advisers from European countries were present at previous meetings, although Russia generally objected to their participation.

The European Commission and the European Council are preparing a joint group of senior officials to send to the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, UNN reports. The office of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the meeting is planned for a period after November 4. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will announce the date in due course. Moscow and Kyiv give different versions, so both the date of the negotiations and whether Europe will take part in them remain unclear.