Europe to join Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi, defying Kremlin objections

European officials will turn up for the U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in the United Arab Emirates this week, France's foreign minister said on Sunday, days after the Kremlin had insisted there could be no role for European powers at the meeting.

France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told French radio on Sunday, "France will be there and will ensure that Europe's voice is heard." He did not say who would represent Paris, or whether French or other European officials would take part directly in negotiations, or simply observe.

The meetings, which are set to take place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, had previously been presented as a three-way session between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier ruled out a European role, saying the trilateral format had already been agreed.

Talking to a Russian news channel on Friday, he accused European governments of failing to decide who speaks for them, while acknowledging that security talks would at some point require Europe's involvement.

On Thursday, President Trump met Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev and said a coming agreement was "going to involve more than Ukraine," adding he could even say it "might involve all of Europe."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN on Friday that he had not been given details of the agreement Trump had referenced, and warned: "For me, it's not simple, and it can be dangerous." He invoked the 1945 Yalta conference, where Allied leaders settled Europe's division without the involvement of several affected countries.

This will be the fourth round of talks between the two warring nations brokered by the Trump administration, and the first since those in Geneva this February. Earlier U.S.-brokered meetings have made little progress, and the chances of a breakthrough have been reduced as the Trump administration focused on its war with Iran.

Moscow confirmed it would return to the negotiating table only following a visit by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October. Those talks saw Putin announce the release of an American prisoner from a Russian jail — an apparent Kremlin gesture to President Trump's earlier lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel exports. Ukraine was vehemently opposed to the fuel sales, arguing they helped replenish Moscow's war chest.

Witkoff has said the agenda for these latest talks will include postwar security arrangements, de-escalation of the conflict and humanitarian issues, shortly after Melania Trump helped broker a limited ceasefire that allowed humanitarian aid to enter a town inside Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Russia's delegation will again be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Putin aide who has participated in most talks with Ukraine since the unsuccessful first set of discussions.