Moscow denies the agreement announced by Jared Kushner regarding Europeans’ participation in peace negotiations for Ukraine

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that it was unaware of any agreement to include European powers in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, contradicting claims by U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner. He announced Thursday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to European participation in the next round of talks.

“As far as Russia’s Foreign Ministry knows, the issue was not discussed” during meetings in Moscow with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for Russia’s diplomatic service.

A day earlier, after a meeting in Dublin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kushner said that Europeans needed to be “at the negotiating table” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to try. The statement came hours after Kushner and Witkoff held talks with Putin in Moscow.

According to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, no representative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry attended the meeting. Putin was accompanied by his foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, and envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

The talks followed trilateral negotiations between representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the United States held in Abu Dhabi. European leaders are calling to be involved, arguing that any peace agreement would have direct consequences for the continent’s security. Ukraine is also maintaining its goal of joining the European Union.