Europe sends EU-plus-five team to Ukraine talks in push for one voice

European Council President Antonio Costa said Friday that the 27-nation EU and five members of the “Coalition of the Willing” — the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland — will send diplomats to the next round of Ukraine talks. The announcement followed a summit focused on keeping Europe from being shut out of US-led negotiations to end the nearly five-year war. “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 watched Washington and Moscow edge toward decisions on the conflict and feared being left on the sidelines, with Kyiv exposed. French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday in Dublin: “Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine. There is no more US support.” Russia has resisted European involvement in direct negotiations, complaining that European countries are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military.

Envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met this week in Abu Dhabi, while Britain, France and Germany attended discussions nearby but not the main talks. After US envoy Jared Kushner met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin late Thursday, both said Europe would join the next round. Zelensky said Europe would send a negotiating team and “they will have a voice”; Kushner said, “We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “willing to give it a try.”

How Europe should be represented has been a sore point. The Kremlin’s Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that “the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar” and should name a representative. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni backed a single envoy, arguing that without a united European voice, individual countries or small groups had engaged in freelance diplomacy: “There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said. Sending a team instead lets the “coalition of the willing,” including the UK outside the EU since 2020, take part, and gives Poland a voice for eastern-flank states facing Russian hybrid threats.

It was not immediately clear who would represent EU institutions. European Council President Costa and the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, had been floated; Kallas claimed the role Friday, saying, “I’m the one who is representing Europe in the foreign and security policy,” and noted the Russians don’t want her. “We can’t send any person that has no institutional role like the Americans are sending,” she said.

Not every leader is sold on the process. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Thursday, “In my opinion, calling them negotiations is an exaggeration,” and warned Europe would not build a new security architecture just because Putin or someone in Washington wishes it. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said leaders feared another “Anchorage moment” — a reference to the Alaska summit where Trump’s overtures to Putin stunned them without Ukrainian or European envoys — ahead of Trump’s trip to Beijing next week to meet Putin: “Please, no surprises. Continue to play in team Europe and in the team with Ukraine.” Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs said Europe is larger than Russia in population, economy and military might: “We as Europe have to grow some bigger balls.”