Moscow tells Europe to pick an envoy if it wants a seat at the table

EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas says Vladimir Putin does not want to talk to her because she is 'strong'

The Kremlin has said Europe must choose a leader to negotiate with Russia and meet Vladimir Putin's approval before Moscow gives the continent a seat at peace talks over Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president's spokesperson, told reporters on Friday that Putin wanted to assess the Europeans' "real intentions" and did not commit to expanding the US-led negotiations.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, said a day earlier that Putin was willing to give European involvement "a try" after meeting him in Moscow.

EU leaders meeting in Dublin on Friday are discussing possible options after months of divisions over who should represent them and what they were willing to discuss with Russia. EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Putin did not want to talk to her because she is too "strong".

Peskov said Russia had yet to make a decision about whether it would let the Europeans, who provide almost all of Ukraine's military and budget financing, take part.

"If the Europeans have someone who is authorised to speak [on their behalf], and if they have the desire to speak, then we will," Peskov said, according to Interfax. "After we understand their real intentions and readiness to help the peace process, then we can take a decision about holding dialogue on the Ukraine peace process in an expanded format," he added.

Peskov's comments indicated Russia wanted Europe to roll back its support for Ukraine as a precondition for talks.

Russia also wants to discuss a "new long-term security architecture" in Europe as part of its conditions for ending the war, which would bar Nato from adding new members or deploying forces east of the former Iron Curtain. That is a red line for European capitals, which have insisted that such talks could only take place after peace is agreed in Ukraine.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, said on Thursday that Russia also wanted to discuss "a few fresh ideas building on the lessons we cannot help but take from the current situation, when the collective west has taken up arms against us and is not hiding its interests in using the Kyiv regime to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia".

Putin told Kushner and Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff a day earlier that dialogue with Europe over Ukraine was a "vicious circle" and accused Kyiv's allies of trying to prolong the war.

The Russian president held a call with Finland's Alexander Stubb and Norway's Jonas Gahr Støre earlier this month, and has said he is open to speaking to other foreign leaders.

But Putin has previously indicated he does not want to speak to European leaders unless they are prepared to take his maximalist demands for ending the war as a starting point for talks.

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, said on Friday as she arrived at the Dublin summit that she was de facto the person whom EU states had empowered to represent them in negotiations with foreign powers.

"All the [EU] member states actually agreed that I'm the one who is representing Europe in foreign and security policies," she told reporters. "I know that the Russians don't want me . . . They don't want anybody strong on the other side, because they want to push through their maximum demands."

Peskov declined to comment on Kallas representing Europe.

Many EU capitals remain wary of engaging with Russia without a signal that Putin is serious about any effort to end the conflict.

"A substantial peace agreement is as important as who represents Europe," said Micheál Martin, Ireland's taoiseach, on Friday.