The Kremlin excludes Europe from the peace negotiations with Ukraine: “They can participate if they buy their own tickets”

The Kremlin announced on Wednesday that Europe will not be invited to the next round of negotiations on the war in Ukraine, scheduled for November in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The talks will resume in a trilateral format, with the participation of Russia, Ukraine and the United States.

Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s adviser on international policy, said that Europeans “can participate if they buy tickets,” but will not be invited to the negotiating table. The Russian official said that the exact date of the meeting would be announced soon. Moscow has proposed the second week of November, while Kyiv prefers the meeting to take place after the legislative elections in the United States, scheduled for November 3.

The statements came after Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin, with the support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and urged him to accept a ceasefire. Putin told them that there would be no peace until Russia’s national interests were taken into account.

Zelenskyy has consistently supported the participation of European allies in the negotiations, particularly amid tensions between Kyiv and U.S. President Donald Trump. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, said that Europe had presented nothing new in its recent contacts with Moscow.