European leaders have rejected Vladimir Putin’s push to overhaul the continent’s security architecture as part of Ukraine peace talks, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned allies that Washington and Moscow were already discussing the issue.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met the Russian president in Moscow on Thursday following Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, where the Russian delegation raised Europe’s security arrangements while refusing to meet European officials, the Financial Times reported.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Europe had a functioning European security architecture until it was first gradually undermined and, ultimately, destroyed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said European Council president António Costa, who hosted the Ukrainian president and other leaders in Dublin on Thursday.
Zelenskyy said that the US-Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi this week had involved “a lot of talk about security guarantees”.
“Europe really needs to pay attention,” Zelenskyy said. “When the Americans and Russians talk about these, it’s not just about Ukraine; in fact, it’s more about some kind of new security framework between Europe and Russia. And we find this approach a bit strange.”
Russian officials have repeatedly said that the continent’s security arrangements needed to be redesigned — meaning a ban on further Nato expansion, and on military drills near the Russian border, as well as withdrawing troops and military equipment from Nato’s eastern flank.
These demands have been interpreted in many European capitals as the Kremlin attempting to restore its sphere of influence and infringe on the national sovereignty of EU and Nato members.
Putin on Thursday said Moscow’s proposals for a new security architecture needed to be discussed before an end to the war was agreed.
“What do we hear from the Europeans? No, only after peace in Ukraine. But they are planning to send troops there after peace in Ukraine. That’s continuing the war,” Putin said.
Kushner and Witkoff told Putin in televised remarks that the US wanted Europeans to participate in future talks on the war involving Russia, and that Washington had begun discussions with European allies about the continent’s security architecture.
