Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former ambassador to the U.S., said on Sunday that upcoming talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia should include more of Europe.
Mr. Ushakov said that the U.S.’s influence over Ukraine to comply with peace negotiations has become more limited as Europe has stepped up to support the warring country.
“Before, it seemed after Anchorage that the US administration might be able to dictate something and force Kyiv to comply,” Mr. Ushakov said, according to a Reuters translation of an interview with the state-owned television station Vesti. “But so far, this hasn’t really worked out.”
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Mr. Ushakov pointed to the 2025 summit in Anchorage, Alaska between President Trump and Mr. Putin as a starting point. He says the landscape has changed as Europe has become more involved in the conflict.
“That’s because it’s not enough to talk only to Kyiv; we need to talk to the whole of Europe, which fully supports Kyiv,” Mr. Ushakov said.
He indicated that the planned trilateral talks slated to take place in the United Arab Emirates in November may be initially less productive.
“Not much could be decided during the first meeting too, it will perhaps be observational,” Mr. Ushakov said. He went on to say that any possible deal “still needs work.”
The interview was hosted by Pavel Zarubin, a full-throated supporter of the Kremlin. Mr. Zarubin claims to be a political independent but was sanctioned by the European Union in January for acting as a “Russian propagandist.”
The Kremlin’s comments come after a week of attempts by figures in the Trump administration to begin brokering an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. First Lady Melania Trump announced Friday that she had secured a local ceasefire in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow humanitarian aid to reach local elderly.
The Russian-occupied city’s plight reached Mrs. Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
“My representative and I immediately leveraged the communication channel we established with Russia and Ukraine through the previous six reunifications of 34 children,” Mrs. Trump said. “Both nations promptly assigned teams to coordinate the complex mechanics involved, including demining. All parties have worked around the clock since that moment.”
Mr. Trump praised his wife for getting results in what continues to be an intractable conflict.
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