EU prepares team for peace talks in Abu Dhabi - media
Kyiv • UNN
The European Commission and the European Council plan to send a delegation to talks in Abu Dhabi in early November. They may be held with the participation of the EU, Ukraine, the US and Russia.
The European Commission and the European Council are preparing a joint team of senior officials, which is planned to be sent to the next round of talks on peace in Ukraine, expected to take place in Abu Dhabi in early November. Euronews reports, as UNN writes.
The chief of staff to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the influential Björn Seibert, is being named as the leading candidate to head the delegation
The exact date has not yet been announced.
"We are firmly committed not merely to ending the war, but also to achieving a peace that will be just and lasting. This is our goal, and it is precisely this position that we are defending in the ongoing negotiations," a European Commission representative said.
The publication notes that Brussels is now openly declaring its intention to hold future negotiations in a multilateral format—that is, to bring Europeans, Ukrainians, Americans, and Russians together at the same table simultaneously.
"Nothing like this has happened in the peace process before. Until now, the United States has mostly conducted negotiations with Russia, while trilateral meetings involving Ukraine have taken place only occasionally," the publication says.
Even more telling, the publication notes, is that this time Russia did not reject Europe's participation, as it has repeatedly done in the past. On the contrary, it appears that Russia is now seeking this itself, the publication writes.
"It is not enough to talk only to Kyiv. It is necessary to engage in dialogue with all of Europe, which fully supports Kyiv," said last week Yuri Ushakov, a close aide to Putin.