European officials will attend U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi this week, France’s foreign minister said Sunday, despite the Kremlin’s insistence that European powers had no role in the meeting.

“France will be there and will ensure that Europe’s voice is heard,” Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio, according to reporting by NPR’s Willem Marx.

Barrot did not identify France’s representative or clarify whether European officials would participate directly in negotiations or attend as observers. The talks are scheduled for Nov. 10–11 in the United Arab Emirates and had previously been presented as a three-way meeting involving Washington, Moscow and Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said the trilateral format was already agreed. Speaking to a Russian news channel Friday, he accused European governments of failing to decide who spoke for them, while acknowledging that security discussions would eventually require European involvement.

The meeting will be the fourth round of talks between Russia and Ukraine brokered by the Trump administration, and the first since February’s negotiations in Geneva, NPR reported. Earlier rounds produced little progress.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff has said the agenda will cover postwar security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian issues. Russia’s delegation will again be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, with deputy foreign ministers and senior military officials also attending.

Major disagreements remain. Russia has demanded that Ukraine surrender large areas of territory and renounce NATO membership. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted that security commitments specify who would respond, and how, if Russia attacked again.

After President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that a coming agreement could involve all of Europe, Zelenskyy told CNN he had not received details of the agreement being discussed and warned that the situation could be dangerous.

Sources