EU leaders disagree over establishing a back channel to the Kremlin amid the war in Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders have been unable to agree to create a back channel with Moscow to ensure the bloc’s interests are protected in the event of progress in negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, some said Friday.

European Council President Antonio Costa, who chaired their two-day summit, had directed his office to reach out to the Kremlin and suggested a senior official to make the contact. Costa said his goal is not to mediate or create a negotiating track parallel to the US-led one, which has achieved little progress.

Debate has been raging across Europe in recent months over whether to appoint a mediator for talks with Russia to help get things moving again, but this has been largely dismissed as many believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to negotiate anyway.

Instead, the EU27 focused on the concessions Russia would have to make to secure peace.

Speaking to reporters, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the leaders had failed to resolve their differences over the approach overnight. “Europe is unable to agree even on whether negotiations will be held or on who will lead them,” he said.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said, “Opening the canal is not a mistake from our point of view, and I trust Antonio Costa.”

“What was very clear yesterday evening is that any negotiations must be first and foremost between Ukraine and Russia, but there are no indications that Russia will come to the table at all,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed that peace negotiations must ultimately take place between Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the United States.

He added: “Who speaks on behalf of the European Union is something we do not need to decide today.” “We will decide that when the talks start.”

He added that Costa has an “important role to play” as president of the European Council, representative of the European Union, and preparing and organizing summits, and “we do not need to make decisions beyond that at the moment.”

Merz highlighted efforts to coordinate diplomacy between the so-called European Three – Germany, France and Britain – a coordination he said came “based on Ukraine’s explicit desire.”

Putin has tried to exclude Europe and Kiev from negotiations with the United States over Ukraine’s future. But the Kremlin said Friday that it was “ready to engage” with Europe on the condition that it abandon its desire to talk to Moscow from a position of strength.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the European Union cannot be a neutral peace broker. He again dismissed Western claims that Moscow is harboring factories to attack Europe as “provocative” and “nonsense” while warning that the European military buildup poses growing security threats.

“A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia could quickly escalate into an exchange of nuclear strikes, with disastrous consequences,” Lavrov said in an article published by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

As the leaders left their meeting overnight, Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever joked that Costa would be the envoy to Moscow.

“I was just talking about you, Antonio,” De Wever said, laughing and shaking Costa’s hand. “You were full of praise, and said that you were the only one who could represent us and that we would send you to Moscow.”

Margus Tsahkna, the foreign minister of Estonia — a country on the EU’s eastern side that has faced drone strikes and was once occupied by the Soviet Union — said that “Europe should not assume the role of a neutral mediator” and instead support Ukraine’s position “to force the Kremlin to enter into serious negotiations.”

Associated Press writers Geir Molson in Berlin, and Karel Janicek and Stanislav Houdin in Prague, Czech Republic, contributed to this report.