Trump Admin Will Sideline Europe in Russia-Ukraine Talks—Kellogg

European nations will not be directly involved in brokering a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine in their ongoing war, retired U.S. Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said on Saturday, although he said the continent’s “interests” would be considered in talks to secure peace in Eastern Europe.

When asked whether European countries would have a seat at the negotiating table when discussing a deal to end the war in Ukraine, Kellogg responded: “I think that’s not going to happen.”

This might be like “fingers on a chalkboard” and “may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he said during the Ukrainian Lunch, a side event at the Munich Security Conference organized by Ukraine’s Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

He added: “There was a lot of people at the table that really had no ability to execute some kind of peace process and failed miserably. We’re not going to go down that path.”

The comments were unwelcome for many European officials, who have insisted that a peace settlement for Ukraine cannot cut out continental countries that have long provided support for Kyiv. There was a pervasive sense of indignation from current and former European officials, who have funneled significant aid to Ukraine and are deeply worried about how a ceasefire deal could impact the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) eastern edge.

Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir responding to Kellogg’s comments, said she was “trying to decipher” the meaning behind Trump’s envoy’s remarks, describing them as a “concern.”

“This is about Russia, but this is also about Europe,” she said. In an apparent rebuke of the rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration, Frostadóttir said she hoped to “get a clearer picture” of the White House’s stance “sooner rather than later,” adding: “It’s also difficult for foreign leaders to be reacting constantly to unsure comments.”

“We feel like Ukraine has to be at the table, and Europe does, too,” she said.

“If Trump is negotiating with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about Europe, then it is impossible to talk about Europe without us,” Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said.

“They can talk about it, but they cannot agree anything,” he told Newsweek, but caveated that Europe has to “act more strongly.”

Arancha González Laya, a former Spanish minister of foreign affairs, European Union and Cooperation, told Newsweek that “both Ukraine and Europe have been very clear on two things: no ceasefire discussions on Ukraine without Ukraine, no discussion about the European security architecture without the Europeans.”

“It’s as simple as that,” she added.

“Europe should be at the table,” Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko told Newsweek. “It’s about European security. The United States did a lot in support of us, we’re very thankful—but Europe also did a lot, and they deserve this place.”

“Peace and negotiations without European participation will be completely politically unacceptable,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said while sat just meters from Kellogg. “European Union countries altogether have given a lot in military terms, in financial terms, in humanitarian terms, technical—every possible way.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sought to smooth over the cracks appearing in the transatlantic friendship, including those spidering out from future participation in peace talks.

When probed on Europe’s role in a ceasefire, Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, counseled continental countries to “make sure that you are relevant at the table,” and pointed to the urgent need for Europe to up defense spending as the U.S. has repeatedly demanded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should do “everything he can” to have European countries at the table, Goncharenko said, adding that Kyiv’s own negotiating position is weaker without continental countries heavily involved in talks.

Zelensky himself sought to emphasize the importance of Europe throughout the conference in southern Germany.

Yet the Ukrainian president also battled to keep Kyiv firmly at the heart of any discussions over the country’s future. Ukrainian and European officials have for months expressed deep fears that a Trump-led effort could carve Kyiv, and the U.S.’s other allies, from the negotiation process.

“A sham peace—over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans—would gain nothing,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement on Friday.

This anxiety was hardly alleyed earlier this week when Trump announced he had spoken with Putin in what he termed a “lengthy and highly productive phone call.”

In revealing wording, Trump said on Wednesday he and the Kremlin leader had agreed to start negotiations on ending the war “immediately,” adding they would “begin by calling” Zelensky to “inform him” of the developments.

“A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin,” Zelensky said on stage in Munich on Saturday. “Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot.”

Trump has in recent days insisted Ukraine will be a main player in negotiations, which was echoed by Kellogg on Saturday in front of an audience that included some of Ukraine’s most senior officials.

Representative Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican, confirmed during a side event in Munich on Saturday that Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Saudi Arabia to kick off ceasefire talks in the next few days, Politico reported.

Kellogg said that the U.S. had a “dual track” to communicate separately with the Russian and Ukrainian teams, with the conversations with Moscow led by Witkoff.

“We’re doing that for speed,” Kellogg said.

Looming large over discussions in Munich is confusion about what a Washington-led path to a peace deal looks like.

“We are all very carefully following the signals of President Trump and his closest aides on Ukraine, and the analysis that we are having is that we would like to understand it a little bit more,” Plenković said.

“The problem is we don’t know much still,” Goncharenko added. “What’s the plan? We don’t know.”

Estonian President Alar Karis echoed this train of thought, saying that “there is no plan” for a ceasefire.

“There is only one plan, which is Zelensky’s peace plan,” he said. “There is no plan.”

The Ukrainian president has long plugged with Kyiv’s allies his vision for a peace plan, which has ultimately failed to gain traction.

Expectations for a U.S.-led ceasefire were further muddled by Vice President JD Vance’s address in Munich on Friday, which was widely expected to home in on a solution for nearly three years of war in Ukraine. Instead, he launched a scathing critique of many of the U.S.’s European allies, focusing on what he called an assault on free speech on the continent and largely skipping over Ukraine altogether.

The mood in Munich on a ceasefire is muted, dulled by a continuing confusion over how Trump’s most trusted officials and the president will choose to act in the coming days and weeks. But there is one thing European officials and the U.S.’s representatives in Munich seem to agree on: any Trump-brokered ceasefire will be crafted to last and head off a fresh outbreak of fighting.