EU's Cautious Kremlin Outreach
EU Council Opens Kremlin Channels to Gauge Ukraine Peace Talks Amidst Internal EU Debate
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Key Points
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Before any EU-level move, some European leaders had already made direct contacts with Vladimir Putin: Politico reports that while the EU has not pursued a coordinated effort, “a trio of French, British and German ambassadors met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister in Moscow earlier in June,” and individual leaders have had direct contact with Putin in recent months.
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The Reuters report notes internal pushback over who should lead any European diplomatic track: “Some European leaders have also pushed back against efforts by Britain, France and Germany – known as the E3 – to take the diplomatic lead for Europe in any dialogue with Moscow.”
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni renewed her call for a single EU envoy, arguing that multiple diplomatic groups would cause confusion and insisting the choice should avoid the bloc’s “big European countries”: she said it would be “very difficult” to put forward someone from a large country and that she would “look instead to the EU’s medium-sized powers.”
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Euractiv connects the timing of the EU outreach to changes in US and G7 dynamics: it says new momentum came after “Donald Trump’s shift at the G7 summit” to pressure Putin and “grant the Europeans a greater role.”
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Multiple reports emphasize the Kremlin outreach appears to be limited to preliminary probing rather than negotiations: Reuters quotes an EU official saying “Nothing was discussed on substance,” while Politico similarly describes the backchannel as a break with the prior de facto EU policy of not speaking directly to Russia since the 2022 invasion, and says the contacts were “brief” and not about substance.
The European Council President's office has made direct contact with the Kremlin for the first time since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported on June 17. Senior figures in António Costa's office reached out in recent weeks to open communication channels and test whether any path to peace talks exists.
EU officials were quick to stress the limits of the move. "Nothing was discussed on substance," one official told Reuters. The contacts were brief and aimed only at setting up a diplomatic channel — not at starting negotiations. Still, the outreach marks a clear break from four years of EU silence toward Moscow.
Costa Moves Carefully to Avoid Fracturing Western Unity
Costa has signaled he will only engage fully at the "right moment." He has spent weeks coordinating with EU member states to avoid going it alone. His office framed the contacts as a way to protect the bloc's "specific interests" — not to mediate a deal. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas offered a sharper warning, saying direct talks could become a "trap that Russia wants us to walk into," according to Euractiv.
The concern is real. If EU leaders pursue separate diplomatic tracks, Vladimir Putin could play them against each other. Costa himself warned that independent outreach could "fracture the broader Western coalition," Euractiv reported. Any substantive engagement, officials said, would need Ukraine's blessing first.
E3 Ambassadors Met Moscow Before the EU Backchannel Emerged
The EU's outreach did not happen in a vacuum. On June 11, the British, French, and German ambassadors all met with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin in Moscow, Politico reported. That meeting came days after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Volodymyr Zelensky in London on June 7 to agree on five conditions for peace.
Those five conditions include an immediate ceasefire, legally binding security guarantees for Ukraine, a multinational peacekeeping force, the continued freezing of Russian assets, and respect for Ukrainian territorial integrity. But the E3's push to lead European diplomacy has already caused friction. "Some European leaders have pushed back against efforts by Britain, France and Germany to take the diplomatic lead for Europe," Reuters reported.
Meloni Pushes for a Single EU Envoy From a Medium-Sized Country
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni moved quickly to challenge the E3's approach. She called for a single EU envoy to handle all contacts with Russia — and said that person should not come from one of Europe's largest states. "Proposing one of those candidates would make an agreement harder to reach," she said, according to Reuters. She would "look instead to the EU's medium-sized powers."
Meloni's push reflects a wider fear among smaller EU states that France, Germany, and the UK are making decisions about European security without broader input. Multiple overlapping diplomatic groups, she argued, would only cause "confusion." The Kremlin has tried to stoke those divisions further — Putin reportedly floated former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a possible mediator, a suggestion Brussels flatly rejected.
Trump's G7 Shift Gave Europe Room to Act
New momentum came from an unexpected place. At the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains on June 15–16, President Donald Trump shifted his stance and pressured Putin to "make a deal," according to Euractiv. Trump also signaled he was open to Europeans taking a "greater role" in managing the conflict — partly because his administration's attention was consumed by the crisis with Iran.
That opening gave Costa's office reason to move. EU leaders are now scheduled to meet with Zelensky in Brussels on June 18 to discuss next steps, The Moscow Times reported. The war has now lasted 1,570 days. Ukraine recently ratified a €90 billion EU loan, with repayments tied to interest from frozen Russian assets. The financial stakes of any deal — and any diplomatic misstep — are enormous.
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