Too soon?
Talks about a potential EU special envoy to represent the bloc in talks with Russia are heating up as the U.S. has stepped back from its peace efforts, with Donald Trump’s mediators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, busy trying to broker a ceasefire with Iran.
Meanwhile, both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have endorsed the idea of having a European at the table — though both have very different ideas as to who should do the job.
After Putin floated Schröder’s name, Zelenskyy’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, mocked that idea, telling POLITICO that Kremlin-friendly French actor Gérard Depardieu or former U.S. action star Steven Seagal would equally qualified for the job.
On their way into the Cyprus gathering, European foreign ministers put forward sharply contrasting takes on whether the EU should start negotiating directly with Russia.
While top diplomats from the Baltic countries were skeptical, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot embraced the idea. “We need to seize the opportunity of the U.S. decision to pause their involvement in the negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia.”
“I think that we need to take a common decision, not only identifying one person, but also what kind of content we would like to put on the negotiation table,” he said, adding it was important to have an “open discussion on the issue.”