Europe to send a diplomat team to Ukraine talks as leaders push for a voice

DUBLIN — Europe will send a team of diplomats from the European Union and five individual countries to the next round of Ukraine talks, a top EU official said Friday after a summit focused on how to avoid being shut out of U.S.-led negotiations on ending the nearly five-year war.

European Council President Antonio Costa said the continent will be represented by officials from the 27-nation EU bloc and five members of the “Coalition of the Willing” that backs Ukraine: the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Poland.

“We need to integrate all of us. And for this it’s essential to have a team and to speak with only one voice,” Costa said.

European leaders have been concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.

Ukraine is eager for support from its European allies. It’s reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow’s views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort.

European leaders also distrust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland, and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.

“Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday at a meeting of the European Political Community in Dublin. “There is no more U.S. support.”

“At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans,” he said.

European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.

As envoys from Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv met this week in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France, and Germany, attended discussions nearby, but not the main talks.

U.S. envoy Jared Kushner and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after they met in Dublin late Thursday that Europe would be part of the next round of talks. Zelensky said Europe would send a negotiating team, adding, “They will have a voice.”

“We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” Kushner said. He said Putin “is willing to give it a try.”

European leaders are united in wanting a place at the table. But they have tussled over whether Europe should be represented by one person — as Russia has demanded and the U.S. suggested it would prefer — or a team.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that “the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar” and they should name a representative.

Supporters of a single envoy, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argued that the absence of a united European voice has allowed individual countries or small groups to engage in freelance diplomacy.

“There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said.

The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?

That has long frustrated Washington.

After this week’s U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, Kushner said that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”

That echoes the famous question often misattributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”

The decision to send a team, rather than an individual, allows for participation by members of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of nations that have pledged to underpin a future ceasefire with military support. That includes the U.K., which left the EU in 2020.

Poland is a voice for nations on the EU’s eastern flank that face constant hybrid threats from Russia, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.

It was not immediately clear who would represent the EU’s institutions. Speculation had centered on Costa and the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.

Earlier this year, Costa faced criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush back-channel with Moscow.

Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, laid claim to the envoy role Friday, saying, “I’m the one who is representing Europe in the foreign and security policy.”

“I know that the Russians don’t want me, but, you know, do we have a say, who is representing Russia?” she said. “We can’t send any person that has no institutional role like the Americans are sending.”

Some leaders deeply distrust the U.S.-brokered talks.

“In my opinion, calling them negotiations is an exaggeration,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday. “We will not build a new security architecture simply because the Russian president, or someone in the United States, wishes it.”

With Trump due to head to Beijing next week to meet Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said European leaders feared another “Anchorage moment,” a reference to the Alaska summit where they were stunned by Trump’s overtures to the Russian leader in the absence of Ukrainian or European envoys.

“Please, no surprises,” Merz said. “Continue to play in team Europe and in the team with Ukraine.”

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs noted that Europe is larger than Russia in population, economy, and military might.