The US has urged European capitals to offer detailed proposals on weapons, peacekeeping troops and security arrangements they can provide with Ukraine as part of any security guarantee to end its war with Russia.
The request was sent to the capitals this week, four Western officials informed about the document was told to FT. It came as European leaders demanded that they be part of Trump’s negotiations with Vladimir Putin that he announced on Wednesday.
“This (document) is the way we make sure to be involved,” one of the officials said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited European elected leaders to a Summit in Paris since Monday to discuss how Europe can increase support for Ukraine, ignited by US officials’ remarks this week for the peace process.
Washington aims at his questionnaire, sent to governments from the US State Department, to extend Europe’s willingness to protect Kyiv after a peace solution, and the price that Europe is ready to pay in exchange for involvement in negotiations with Moscow.
The State Department demanded details of military equipment that European capitals would be able to provide the number of troops brigades that they would be prepared to decide, officials said.
“The cable raises a number of general questions,” one US official said, adding that he is looking for “specific proposals or ideas” for what may seem a security agreement led by Europe.
“I haven’t seen (the questionnaire) myself, but I can fully understand that it will help essentially focus the conversation,” said Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General.
Rutte said that, despite the US demand, European countries had to be clear how their efforts could increase.
“I hear European countries complaining that they did not immediately have a place on the table (negotiations),” Rutte said. “My argument is, first organize yourself together, the debate and … think about what the European contribution might be.”
The US demand comes ahead of a tour in European capitals by Trump Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, who begins next week in Brussels.
Kellogg was not ranked by the president this week as part of the US team with four men who will hold talks with Moscow, leading officials in Europe and Ukraine to ask himself how involved he is in Trump’s peace.
US officials said Kellogg and others were offering opportunities for Trump, who is the last decision maker.
Kellogg said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference that the discussions were “a two -dirty process”.
“(US Middle East Messenger Stephen Witkoff) has the Russian lane. I have the Ukrainian and European lane,” he said.
Asked if Kellogg’s influence was fading, an American official said his schedule “speaks himself”.
“Not only is he part of the team as the White House spokesman, his diplomacy in Munich, in Brussels initially working under president,” said one US official.
SH.BA has shown that it is prepared to accommodate many of Putin’s essential requirements by pouring cold water into Ukraine’s car to join NATO and recover the territory currently occupied by Russia.
On Saturday Kellogg said he did not think Europeans would be “at the table” during peace negotiations, but that he was talking to European capitals to ensure that their views were taken into account.
A senior Western official said Kellogg’s concentration on that Western countries could do to guarantee Ukraine’s security, rather than what financial concessions could get out of Kyive in return, meant that Russia had little interest in it dealt with it.
The Kremlin’s focus on the figures he saw had a more direct line for Trump, and the best command of the short tent led Moscow to conclude Kellogg had been partially aside, according to three Russian people familiar with the talks.
The US official said Kellogg has been one of Trump’s closest national security advisers for nearly a decade and their relationship is “known in Washington”.
Russia feels other interlocutors like Witkoff, who secured the release of a US teacher from a Russian prison this week, and national security adviser Mike Waltz has a more direct line for Trump and the best short command, they said.
“If he is the Prophet, then he must have asked for contacts in Russia and Ukraine regularly, hire experts in both countries, etc.,” said a former senior Kremlin official. “Witkoff was snappier than he.”
Another person involved in the approach of Russia to the West said Moscow saw Kellogg’s role as largely ceremonial.
“Serious talks, as you know, are with Moscow and you need serious people about it,” the person said. Kellogg “is there to talk to Ukrainians, talk to Europeans, go to TV.”
Any progress in the talks will depend on further direct contact between Trump and Putin, the person added.
“Trump’s method is to send someone like her for a while and then get serious later. Only the problem is that his counterpart is Vladimir Putin, who as a specialist in human relationships is some leagues above his level.”
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the negotiating formation was an internal US issue. “Presidents express a political will to build dialogue, and it is prerogative of the US president to name someone.”
Kellogg’s ongoing talks with Ukraine and Europe suggest that he could still play an important role in the peace process, two of Western officials and former Russian officials said.
“Kellogg is still involved,” the first Western official said. “Some (European) capitals are not taking it seriously, and I think this is the wrong approach.”
Former Russian senior official said Trump had “forgotten” for Kellogg when he named his negotiators, but then “correct himself” later by sending him to Europe. “Maybe there will still be some uses for it.”
