The UK and other European countries should have a place at the negotiating table to help broker peace in the Ukraine war, US secretary of state Marco Rubio says.
Speaking at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris, the top American diplomat expressed his wish to extend participation in future talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine.
Rubio argued that Europe “are a part of solving this problem for the long term”.
He also noted concerns from allies that “America’s going to cut some deal with Russia and leaves Europe out of the equation”.
Rubio previously indicated it was Moscow that opposed European involvement in the negotiations.
His comments came as Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Abu Dhabi for peace talks, mediated by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff.
Although not directly involved in the trilateral discussions, representatives from European countries held meetings on the sidelines, including UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell.
Trump declared last week there was going to be “a big, beautiful agreement” on Ukraine that “might involve all of Europe”.
However, he gave no further details on any proposed deal to end the conflict, triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Trump has been ramping up pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to reach a peace deal with Moscow, despite Kyiv being the victim of Kremlin aggression.
Rubio, Trump's chief foreign affairs adviser, said the Abu Dhabi talks appeared "very productive" but a lot of work remained to be done.
"It’s not like something that’s on the verge of being solved in the next 24 hours or anything like that," he said.
"It’s actually our goal at some point to expand this trilateral, so it’s not just the US, Ukraine, and Russia, but also that the Europeans be represented at that table directly with these talks."
Zelenskiy called the peace talks - the first since February - "constructive and quite substantive".
Addressing reporters in Denmark, said he was "very happy" with messages he had received from Witkoff and Kushner.
"The release of prisoners (of war) is a priority. They spoke in detail about the substance of security guarantees for Ukraine and the foundations for ensuring these guarantees function over the long term," Zelenskiy posted on X.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined Moscow's preference for negotiating a broad European security framework before tackling the specifics of the war.
"The idea of defining clear parameters for a future security architecture, and only then moving on to resolving the actual Russia-Ukraine conflict, is absolutely reasonable," he said in Moscow.
But Zelenskiy has deep reservations about that.
"Everybody is ready for dialogue," he told journalists.
"First, stop the war in Ukraine. Second, security guarantees for Ukraine. Third, maybe some dialogue about the topic of security in Europe, in the world."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones attacked Russia's northwest, home to major Baltic Sea export facilities and a big oil refinery, setting ablaze the Ust-Luga port area and injuring three.
Drone debris killed two people in Russia's Smolensk region bordering Belarus, Russian newswires cited the local governor as saying.
In Ukraine, an overnight Russian air strike knocked out power in parts of the industrial stronghold of Kryvyi Rih, injured one in the second biggest city of Kharkiv and another six in Zaporizhzhia, officials and emergency services said.
Unidentified drones, believed to be from Russia or Belarus, prompted a flurry of alerts urging citizens in the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to seek shelter, and NATO air defence fighter jets to scramble. There were no reports of injuries.
Finland, another Russian neighbour, adopted temporary airspace and maritime curbs.
Joining the European Union soon is an important aim for Ukraine as it tries to complete its exit from Moscow's orbit, but there is scepticism in the wealthy bloc of 450 million people about Kyiv's prospects of achieving that goal.
With Reuters
