US envoy to Ukraine has revealed that Europe will not be part of the planned peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine.
This revelation brings forth that Europe will not be consulted but excluded from the US, Ukraine and Russia talks to reach agreement to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
The war appears one of the most attracted events in the world since 2014 but this is the significant move ever, following Donald Trump’s plan latched onto by US envoy Keith Kellogg with his Saturday’s comments, to bring a three-year standing Russia war in Ukraine to an end.
Planned talks that will involve the three countries was initiated by Trump in fulfilment of one of his campaign pledges, and is taking place ahead of reaching a peace deal to end the conflict. Keith Kellogg was asked if Europe would be present at the planned talks.
Kellogg said he was answering from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”.
“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he said on Saturday.
“And to my European friends, I would say: get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending.”
Kellogg’s remarks will cause consternation among some European leaders who do not trust Trump and believe their country’s security is inextricably interwoven with the fate of Ukraine. The Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had invited European leaders to Paris on Monday to discuss the situation.
Kellogg said one reason previous peace talks between Ukraine and Russia had failed was because of the involvement of too many countries that had no ability to execute any such process. “We are not going to get down that path,” he said on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had earlier used his speech to the conference to warn that Europe was likely to be excluded from the negotiations. He urged Europe to step up and form a European army in which Ukraine would play a central role.
European leaders, battered by the confrontational speech by the US vice-president, JD Vance, on Friday, are increasingly apprehensive about Trump’s approach to a Ukraine peace deal and fear an agreement may be struck that is advantageous to the US, but has long-term implications not just for the security of Ukraine, but for Europe.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on social media: “Europe urgently needs its own plan of action concerning Ukraine and our security, or else other global players will decide about our future. Not necessarily in line with our own interest … This plan must be prepared now. There’s no time to lose.”
Kellogg said the critical issues were to ensure the war did not start again after a ceasefire and to determine how Ukraine retained its sovereignty. He said this would require a credible security guarantee, adding that Trump, as the sole decision-maker in the US, was not yet in a position to define such a guarantee.
He said: “Trump would need a full range of options”, and that “all options are on the table”. He said he was working on “Trump time”, adding he expected an agreement in weeks and months. A key issue was to agree how breaches of any ceasefire agreement were handled, he said.
Kellogg said he was working with his contacts in the Nato alliance while Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, was in contact with the Russians.
Zelenskyy told Europe to avoid being abandoned at the negotiation table by Trump. “Let’s be honest – now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say ‘no’ to Europe on issues that threaten it. Many leaders have talked about a Europe that needs its own military – an army of Europe. I believe that the time has come. The armed forces of Europe must be created.
“A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin. Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot. The old days are over – when America supported Europe just because it always had. Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement. And the same rule should apply to all of Europe. No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe.”
He added: “President Trump once said: ‘What matters is not the family you were born into, but the one you build.’ We must build the closest possible relationship with America, and – yes, a new relationship – but as Europeans, not just as separate nations. That’s why we need a unified foreign policy, a coordinated diplomacy, the foreign policy of a common Europe.”
With many European nations facing increasingly Eurosceptic electorates, his ideas about integration are unlikely to take off, but his remarks may galvanise Europe into more detailed discussions about what military role they can play in Ukraine, including by putting troops on the ground to protect a ceasefire.
The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, urged Europe to remain engaged with Trump, and not to believe he was about to abandon Europe or Ukraine. He said “We are one family” adding the Americans “are right, we are not spending enough”. He said he expected Nato to adopt a new spending target in May to be reached in four or five years’ time with clear milestones, and a possible defence spending target above 3% of GDP. The current target of 2% was not enough, he said.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for Europe, took a more optimistic view of US intentions, saying: “There is a very serious intention and determination to end the war in a just way, and that it should be ended in a manner that it does not happen again. We are not only talking about ending the war, but also preventing it happening again.”
Zelenskyy is trying to fend off a bid by Trump for the US to take control of 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. He rejected the offer after the proposed contract did not contain the expected pledges to provide US security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire.
Asked about the deal in Munich, Zelenskyy said: “We are still talking. I have had different dialogues.”
The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, after Trump suggested the US was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance.
Zelenskyy is looking for any way to lock the US into a long-term protection of Ukraine from future Russian threats, but knows that in a vulnerable bargaining position, Trump can make demands it will be hard to resist.
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