While US President Donald Trump is ready to enter into negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and several European leaders reiterated, on Thursday 13 February, that Ukraine must be involved in the negotiations.
Concerns that the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wanted to allay, saying that “any negotiations that take place will be with both parties (Russia and Ukraine)”.
“It is crucial that when we talk about Ukraine, Ukraine is closely involved in everything that happens”, stressed Mark Rutte.
European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho reiterated that “nothing should be done on Ukraine without Ukraine” and that any fair and lasting peace agreement must include Ukraine at the negotiating table.
On Wednesday evening, a few hours after the announcement of negotiations between the United States and Russia, the French, German, Polish, Italian, Spanish, British and Ukrainian foreign ministers, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, and the European Commissioner for Defence, meeting in Paris to discuss Ukraine, warned that “Ukraine and Europe (must) participate in all negotiations”.
To see the ministers’ statement: https://aeur.eu/f/fhf
No discussions without the Europeans. This request was echoed on Thursday by the President of the European Council, António Costa, as well as the High Representative and the German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius. “Peace in Ukraine and the security of Europe are inseparable. (...) There will be no credible and successful negotiations, no lasting peace, without Ukraine and without the EU”, warned Mr Costa.
“If there is an agreement made behind our backs, it will simply not work. For any kind of deal (...) you need the Europeans to implement this deal, you need the Ukrainians to implement this deal”, Kaja Kallas stressed on her arrival at NATO headquarters for a NATO-Ukraine Council meeting. In her view, if the Ukrainians do not agree with the agreement and continue to resist, the Europeans will support them.
According to Mr Pistorius, “it must be clear, when we talk about a peace agreement, a ceasefire or anything else, that the Europeans, who would or should be an essential part of a new order, (...) cannot sit at the children’s table”.
Going against the tide on X, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is close to Mr Trump and Mr Putin, said that you can’t ask for a place at the negotiating table, you have to earn it.
Pete Hegseth stated that NATO and its European members would play a role in the “need for peace”, saying that the negotiations “affect a lot of people” without however specifying to what extent they would be involved.
Questions about the concessions already made to Russia. On his arrival at NATO, Mr Pistorius also regretted the “concessions” made by Washington to Moscow “even before the negotiations have started”. “It would have been preferable, in my opinion, to talk about Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO or possible loss of territory at the negotiating table”, he explained (see EUROPE 13578/9).
“Why are we giving the Russians everything they want before the negotiations have even started?”, Ms Kallas also asked, arguing that no subject should be taken off the negotiating table - including Ukraine’s membership of NATO, which she believes is the best guarantee of security and the least costly - before the negotiations have even begun. The spokeswoman for the European External Action Service, Anitta Hipper, reiterated that Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity were “unconditional”.
On Thursday, a NATO official clarified that Ukraine’s future in NATO had been decided by the Allies in 2008 and that membership status was not part of the peace negotiations. Publicly, Mr Rutte said that Kyiv had never been promised that Ukraine’s NATO membership would be part of the peace agreement.
Reiterating that Mr Trump wanted to “stop the massacres” the US Defence Secretary stressed that this “will require both sides to recognise things that they don’t want”. Mr Hegseth also explained that, unlike the previous day, “everything (was) on the table in (Mr Trump’s) conversations with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky”. According to him, Mr Trump will determine “the strongest carrot or stick on each side to bring about a lasting peace”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)