\u2018Europe\u2019 now has a seat at the negotiating table, if only its leaders could decide what they want to say and who could say it<\/p>\n
In their most recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner apparently secured a place for \u2018Europe\u2019 at the negotiating table with Russia. European leaders will have to overcome deep factional divides and square away their most ideologically-driven fantasists to have any influence over the talks.
\n\u201cThe Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment,\u201d Witkoff told reporters in Moscow on Thursday, before he and Kushner departed for Ireland to brief Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and his EU backers.\u00a0
\nThe Kremlin has not set a date for the next round of talks, nor has Moscow confirmed the precise extent of European participation. However, as Kushner pointed out the previous day, Europe has a more immediate problem on its hands : \u201cIf Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf,\u201d he said, \u201cthat would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US president\u2019s son-in-law is not the first American to express bewilderment at the absence of a common voice in Europe, and there will likely be much talk around this question now that the invitation has been secured by US President Donald Trump\u2019s diplomatic team.. So who is \u201cEurope\u201d?\u00a0
\nRumsfeld\u2019s \u201cNew Europe\u201d
\nAfter Danish Foreign Minister Knud Borge Andersen met with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on behalf of the nine-member EEC in 1973, Kissinger complained that Andersen seemed to speak for Europe, but lacked any real authority to do so. \u201cWe seem to be talking to those who can\u2019t negotiate and those who can negotiate won\u2019t talk to us,\u201d he remarked.
\nThree decades later, Donald Rumsfeld faced staunch opposition from Belgium, France, and Germany as he attempted to drum up European backing for the invasion of Iraq. However, he received salivating support from Britain, Italy, Poland, and the so-called \u2018Vilnius Ten\u2019 \u2013 a Baltic and Eastern European bloc that enthusiastically signed up to combat \u201cthe nexus of terrorism and dictators with weapons of mass destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The newbies, Rumsfeld figured, were the only Europeans worth talking to. \u201cYou\u2019re thinking of \u2018Europe\u2019 as Germany and France,\u201d he told a reporter six weeks before the war. \u201cI don\u2019t. I think that\u2019s old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east.\u201d
\nWho is \u201cEurope\u201d now?
\nThe fault lines identified by Rumsfeld are still visible, and there are three broad camps competing for the position of \u201cvoice of Europe.\u201d
\nThe realists<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni meet at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, April 17, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Getty Images; \u00a0Eric Beracassat <\/p>\n
\u2018Europe\u2019 and \u2018foreign policy realism\u2019 rarely appear in the same sentence these days, but among some of \u201cold Europe\u2019s\u201d leaders, there is a realization that the continent will have to acknowledge the limits of its pro-Ukraine stance and take part in talks before it is overtaken by them.
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni could be considered figureheads, with Macron proposing last December that Europe find an envoy \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d Meloni declared that the French president \u201cis right on this,\u201d and that \u201cif Europe decides to take part in this phase of negotiations by talking only to one of the two sides, I fear that in the end the positive contribution it can make will be limited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
EU incapable of speaking with one voice on Ukraine \u2013 analyst to RT (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz \u2013 despite pivoting his economy into militarization mode and demanding the EU steal billions of Russian sovereign assets \u2013 has called on the bloc to \u201cfind a balance again with our largest European neighbor.\u201d
\nFinnish President Alexander Stubb, floated in EU-funded media as a possible envoy to Moscow, along with Meloni, joined Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to call Putin last month.
\n\u201cRealism\u201d is a relative term here. All of the aforementioned leaders remain committed to arming Ukraine and pushing for peace on Kiev\u2019s terms, while support for the theft of Russia\u2019s assets remains strong across the EU. Stubb and Store offered \u201cno change in Europe\u2019s approach\u201d to Ukraine during their phone call, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
\nBelgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has also placed himself in the realist camp, arguing that seizing the \u20ac210 billion ($236 billion) worth of Russian assets, a move he has blocked, would collapse trust in the European financial system.
\nThe maximalists<\/p>\n
The golden children of Rumsfeld\u2019s \u201cnew Europe\u201d are full-throttle maximalists. They consider any talks with Russia a betrayal of Ukraine, and remain determined to fight, as Putin has said, \u201cto the last Ukrainian.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Fyodor Lukyanov: Abu Dhabi talks signal a major shift in the Ukraine peace process<\/p>\n
Their poster boy, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, reacted with shock when Kushner announced last week that he and Trump were working on an agreement that would \u201caddress the security concerns of all sides\u201d in Europe. Evidently fearing that some of the realists had signaled support for this agreement, he told reporters that \u201cthe last thing we want is Western Europe dealing with Russia, over the heads of the east Europeans.\u201d
\nThe belief that Ukraine can inflict a military defeat on Russia is a core tenet of European maximalism. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics made this clear in 2024 when he openly stated \u201cRussia must be destroyed.\u201d Sikorski\u2019s calls for \u201caggressive\u201d NATO exercises to destabilize Russia\u2019s exclave of Kaliningrad, former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis\u2019 demand that NATO leaders remove \u201call red lines and de-escalation policies\u201d on Russia, and Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal\u2019s likening of Putin to a \u201crat in a corner\u201d are just three examples of the maximalist rhetoric radiating from Eastern Europe and the Baltics.
\nMoscow views these \u201cnew Europeans\u201d as hysterical, reactionary, and paranoid. Even the US has told them to pipe down, with Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby reportedly ordering the Baltic states last month not to \u201cmake noise\u201d and stop \u201cpoking\u201d Russia.
\nTo the maximalists, even symbolic outreach to Moscow is unconscionable. After Stubb and Store spoke to Putin last month, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen complained that the call had \u201cnot been coordinated with the rest of us,\u201d referring to a group reportedly including her and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, two of the most hardline anti-Russian voices in the EU.
\nThe fantasists<\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wield significantly more power than their predecessors did when Rumsfeld toured Europe in 2003. Von der Leyen has no electorate to answer to, has the power to borrow money for Ukraine on the EU\u2019s behalf, and can propose new funding mechanisms for Kiev.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Sidelined: Why the EU has no seat at the Russia-US-Ukraine talks (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
However, the Commission still counts on unanimity among the EU\u2019s member states to approve its loans, aid packages, and sanctions, and it has no military power to back up its diktats and proclamations.
\nWhat it has are appeals to fantasy. Von der Leyen has insisted that the EU have veto power over any potential peace deal negotiated between Moscow, Kiev, and Washington, that Ukraine be allowed to keep its pre-conflict borders, and that Moscow be forced to pay reparations to Kiev.
\nKallas\u2019 position is even more loosely tethered to reality, with her repeated calls for representation at the negotiating table interspersed with quotes from Marvel superhero movies \u2013 \u201cEuropeans, assemble!\u201d \u2013 and threats to dismember Russia into \u201cmany smaller nations.\u201d
\nThe hubris of Von der Leyen and Kallas has ruled them out as negotiators \u2013 both in the eyes of the Kremlin and their fellow Europeans. \u201cHow can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas?\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked to reporters earlier this year. Brussels, he added, is full of \u201csemi-literate, incompetent functionaries.\u201d
\nA reckoning in Dublin<\/p>\n
Vladimir Zelensky speaks to reporters at government buildings in Dublin, Ireland, November 11, 2026<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Getty Images; \u00a0Niall Carson <\/p>\n
European Council President Antonio Costa has promised to discuss the creation of an envoy during talks at the EU\u2019s summit in Dublin this week. However, the bloc\u2019s leaders are unlikely to come to any agreement, an EU spokesperson told Germany\u2019s DW on Wednesday.
\nMeanwhile, the US is not the only actor losing patience. On the eve of the summit, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky issued his European patrons an ultimatum: \u201cWe need to choose who will represent Europe in the negotiations,\u201d he said, demanding that this decision be made \u201cno later than the end of November.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky issues ultimatum to Western Europe<\/p>\n
Time is not on Zelensky\u2019s side either. The longer his closest allies sit out the talks, the greater the risk that Russia and the US cut an unfavorable deal for Ukraine. \u201cWe need to make sure that Europe becomes a regular part of these negotiations,\u201d he told a meeting of the European Political Community on Thursday. \u201cEurope really needs to pay attention when the Americans and Russians talk\u2026about some kind of new security framework between Europe and Russia,\u201d he added.
\nMoscow on maximalists and fantasists
\nRussia maintains that it is open to serious discussions, but Peskov noted on Wednesday that \u201cfor the moment, the statements we hear from the Europeans do not indicate any desire on their part to contribute to progress along a peaceful path.\u201d
\n\u201cThey [top European politicians] are engaged in a group deception of the Ukrainian people. They finance and supply one of the fighting sides with weapons\u2026 It contributes to the mass death of the civilian population. And therefore, we do not really understand what we can talk about with them,\u201d Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told journalists after the Abu Dhabi talks concluded on Wednesday.
\nShould the Europeans fail to change their tune in the near future, they will be left, as Lavrov quipped, \u201csit[ting] in their hotel\u201d while the future of the continent\u2019s security is decided without them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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