Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Sunday that upcoming talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia should include more of Europe.
Mr. Ushakov, a former ambassador to the United States, said the U.S.’ influence over Ukraine to comply with peace negotiations has become more limited as Europe has stepped up to support the warring country.
“Before, it seemed after [the 2025 U.S.-Russia summit in] Anchorage that the U.S. administration might be able to dictate something and force Kyiv to comply,” Mr. Ushakov said, according to a Reuters translation of an interview with the state-owned television station Vesti. “But so far, this hasn’t really worked out.”
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Mr. Ushakov pointed to last year’s Alaska summit between President Trump and Mr. Putin as a starting point.
Russia and Ukraine have signaled greater openness to negotiations ahead of an upcoming trilateral meeting. The Kremlin agreed to attend the planned talks last week during a discussion between Mr. Ushakov and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Saint Petersburg.
Mr. Ushakov noted that Mr. Putin agreed “in principle” to begin peace discussions. But he later said Europe needs to be part of the talks for them to be productive. He said the landscape has changed as Europe has become more involved in the conflict.
“That’s because it’s not enough to talk only to Kyiv; we need to talk to the whole of Europe, which fully supports Kyiv,” Mr. Ushakov said.
He indicated that the planned trilateral talks slated to take place in the United Arab Emirates in November may be initially less productive.
“Not much could be decided during the first meeting, too. It will perhaps be observational,” Mr. Ushakov said, adding that any possible deal “still needs work.”
The Vesti interview was hosted by Pavel Zarubin, a full-throated supporter of the Kremlin. Mr. Zarubin claims to be a political independent but was sanctioned by the European Union in January for acting as a “Russian propagandist.”
The Kremlin’s comments come after a week of attempts by the Trump administration to begin brokering an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Those efforts have been tempered by public comments that have sounded less hopeful, according to analysts.
“If you look at the rhetoric from the Trump administration, you can come to the conclusion that it’s game over,” Charles Kupchan, a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, said Wednesday during a panel at the Council of American Ambassadors’ annual fall conference. “‘We’re done with you, we don’t like you, we’re throwing Ukraine under the bus. Good night and good luck.’”
“The bottom line is that Ukraine is not going to win this war,” Mr. Kupchan said. “The longer this war goes on, the more likely it is that Putin achieves his goal, which is to break the country. Not conquer it, because he can’t do that, but break it.”
First lady Melania Trump announced Friday that she secured a ceasefire in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow humanitarian aid to reach the elderly. She learned of the Russian-occupied city’s plight on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City in September.
“My representative and I immediately leveraged the communication channel we established with Russia and Ukraine through the previous six reunifications of 34 children,” Mrs. Trump said. “Both nations promptly assigned teams to coordinate the complex mechanics involved, including de-mining. All parties have worked around the clock since that moment.”
Mr. Trump praised his wife for getting results in what continues to be an intractable conflict.
Mrs. Trump’s efforts are part of a wider effort by the administration to restart negotiations. Mr. Witkoff’s discussion with Mr. Ushakov last week took place as the White House started to apply diplomatic pressure to Kyiv to make a deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he supported the push from Washington to restart talks swiftly.
“The agenda is clear: to end the war, bring peace closer, and, as I understand it, prepare everything for a meeting at the leaders’ level,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in an audio message issued late Wednesday.
Analysts point to European assistance as one of the key aspects of upcoming negotiations, as well. Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center on Europe and Eurasia, pointed to U.S. support in Ukraine and U.S. trade with Russia as “leverage” the U.S. needs if there is to be a “negotiated settlement.”
“This war has gone on longer without U.S. financial assistance than it has with U.S. financial assistance,” Mr. Coffey noted on Wednesday’s panel.
Mr. Coffey noted that Mr. Zelenskyy has publicly stated “multiple times that he’s happy for the front line to freeze where it is today.” He said that where front lines currently sit would be “a concession” but stressed that it should also be “a starting point” in negotiations.
Moscow continues to demand Ukrainian territory it does not fully control, while Kyiv insists any agreement must include ironclad guarantees against another invasion. Further complicating any discussions, Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv just hours after agreeing to attend the summit in November.
Drone and missile attacks on Saturday killed at least four people across Ukraine, according to Mr. Zelenskyy. He criticized Russia, saying the attacks were “how Russia responds to diplomacy and deisolation.” He demanded that leaders “unblock the deliveries of Patriot interceptors already approved by European countries.”
As Russia advances plans for attacking energy infrastructure ahead of the Ukrainian winter, analysts warn that negotiations will likely leave much of the territory Russia has occupied under its control.
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