Why
Europe failed to find a superhero to take on Putin
Europe’s
seven-part team of Ukraine peace envoys must now agree their strategy for
handling Russia.
Russia's
President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow on
November 12, 2026. | Sputnik pool photo by Alexander Kazakov/AFP via Getty
Images
Analysis
November 13,
2026 7:14 pm CET
By Tim Ross
https://www.politico.eu/article/why-europe-failed-to-find-a-superhero-to-take-on-vladimir-putin/
LONDON —
Some European leaders wanted a superhero negotiator to take on Vladimir Putin
and Donald Trump, secure a fair peace deal for Ukraine, and safeguard the
continent’s own security, as ceasefire talks gather pace.
They were
never going to find one.
That had
already become the view of diplomats and officials close to the discussions,
granted anonymity to comment on the sensitive Ukraine peace process that’s
dividing opinion in European capitals, even before the EU decided on Friday
that it would have to be a team effort.
The push to
identify one representative to speak for Europe was understandable. The appeal
of having a single, respected leader taking the reins is largely based on a
desire to project European strength and unity — as well as an interest in
making negotiations with Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine efficient and
effective.
Ukraine’s
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself said this week he wanted Europe to identify
within days who will take its place in the talks, and suggested he’d prefer
it was one person (he even indicated that he had a preference, though would not
reveal a name).
He
didn’t get his way. Instead, leaders at a summit in Dublin on Friday,
decided that the “E5” made up four big EU countries ― Germany, France, Poland
and Italy ― and the U.K., plus officials from the European Commission and
Council, would take the work forward as a team.
Technical
discussions
The search
for a top representative to fill Europe’s seat at the negotiating table at the
next round of peace talks had become a political obsession in Brussels that
missed at least two big points.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes part in a press
conference at Government Buildings in Dublin on November 11, 2026. | Paul
Faith/AFP via Getty Images
The first is
that the leadership level is not currently where the negotiations are at. Talks
this week in Abu Dhabi were technical discussions between senior officials. The
big political players like Putin and Zelenskyy were not there, never mind
Trump. Russia sent a Kremlin aide to lead its team and Ukraine tasked its
intelligence chief with making its case.
If these
officials make progress toward a deal, leaders will no doubt want to get
involved. Ultimately, it will be leaders who sign any peace agreements that
follow — and there’s no limit on the number of EU presidents or prime ministers
who could join such a meeting as signatories or guarantors of the final
deal.
The next
thing that needs to happen, according to both Ukraine and the U.S. envoys
mediating the talks, is for Europe to join the discussion with Russia — at this
technical level.
‘Not a
superstate’
The second
point some member states and Brussels insiders were missing is structural:
There are just too many European stakeholders with equally important but very
distinct interests and remits, making consolidation of all the different
strands under one person impossible.
The
Commission can’t negotiate Europe’s future security architecture — that’s for
NATO members and national capitals to decide. But equally NATO, Paris and
Berlin cannot negotiate EU sanctions or Ukraine’s accession to the bloc — these
are in the Commission’s remit.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron talks with Germany’s
Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the sidelines of the ninth meeting of the European
Political Community, in Dublin on November 12, 2026. | Thomas Samson/AFP via
Getty Images
And the idea
that the “E3” — Europe’s big economic and military beasts of Germany, France
and the U.K. — would let either the Commission, the European Council or NATO do
it all on their behalf is not realistic.
As one EU
diplomat put it: “The reason why Europe hasn’t found one person who can
represent the whole of Europe is that Europe is not a superstate.”
In the
context of the Ukraine talks, European interests encompass many EU member
states but also countries like the U.K., and Norway, as well as Turkey and
Moldova, the diplomat said. “Who can promise troops on the ground on behalf of
the rest of Europe? Who can offer billions in financing? It’s difficult.”
The
conclusion some officials involved in the Abu Dhabi process reached was that
Europe would have to be represented by a team, much as it has been already,
albeit at one step removed from the main negotiating room so far. Different
members of that team will own different issues.
What
Putin wants
Then there’s
the question of content: What will be discussed and what will Team Europe’s
collective position be?
“What we
actually say is more important than the exact configuration of the people in
the room,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on his way into
Friday’s meeting of EU leaders.
The reason
why American and Ukrainian officials want Europe’s participation is because
they believe beginning a discussion about reshaping the continent’s security
structures could unlock a more cooperative approach from Russia.
EU High Representative and Vice-President for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy Kaja Kallas attends a family photo following an informal
meeting of EU leaders at Dublin Convention Centre on November 13, 2026 in
Dublin. | Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Russia’s top
negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Europe’s security framework was the main
topic discussed in Abu Dhabi this week: “The conflict in Ukraine showed that
the entire security system operating after Yalta and Potsdam is working poorly,
and an abscess broke through in Ukraine,” he said.
Ukraine’s
team noted that the hardline Russian approach softened a little when Moscow’s
representatives saw the chance to talk about their wider demands on European
security.
But Europe
itself wasn’t part of that conversation.
Timing is
still everything
The first
thing to resolve will be on the sequencing of the negotiations — most
significantly, when should Europeans allow themselves to discuss Russia’s
demand to overhaul regional security? This is a critical and potentially
existential question for European countries. And it is already a subject on
which top EU officials are weighing their positions with care.
Those close
to the talks believe a clever way can be found to offer Russia a conversation
about regional security as part of careful sequencing of the negotiations,
without binding the issue completely into the final peace agreement for
Ukraine.
But
different EU spokespeople are saying different things on this sequencing point,
in what is either a clever strategy, or a sign of continuing disarray.
Kaja Kallas,
the EU’s top centrally contracted diplomat, said there must be no discussion of
wider European security architecture — such as NATO configurations, troop
deployments and working forums for consultations with Russia — until after
the peace deal is finalized.
But in Abu
Dhabi, EU officials signaled
their readiness to allow parallel tracks in the talks, so Ukraine’s
peace settlement and Europe’s future security structures could be discussed at
the same time.
Officials in
national capitals also agree that the “sequencing” of the negotiations on this
point is key. Behind the scenes different countries and factions have different
views on what the right strategy should be, just as they struggle with the
question of whether it’s right to engage
directly with Putin at all.
And of
course the question of Europe’s role may yet be moot. The U.S. envoys said on
Thursday night that Putin had consented to letting Europe join the talks, but
the Kremlin called this into question on Friday.
After the
negotiations in Abu Dhabi concluded this week, Jared Kushner, Trump’s
son-in-law and senior envoy, acknowledged the twin problems he faces. “If
Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a
bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the
negotiation,” he said.
