President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived on Sunday afternoon in London for talks with the leaders of Britain, Germany and France as Europe considers taking a more active role in peace talks with Russia after more than a year of unsuccessful U.S. mediation.
Ukraine and its European allies seek to revive talks that have stalled as Moscow made uncompromising territorial demands and Washington shifted its focus to the war with Iran. They note that Russia’s recent battlefield setbacks and mounting economic strains could make a peace settlement more appealing to the Kremlin, a scenario that is also increasingly discussed in Russia.
In a letter to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last week, Mr. Zelensky offered to resume talks. He added that “Europe should be part of this process,” renewing his call for European leaders to step in after Washington’s retreat from negotiations.
European leaders have said they do not see themselves replacing Washington as mediators — a prospect Mr. Putin has also dismissed — but rather as additional participants in efforts to end a war whose outcome will shape Europe’s security for decades to come.
“I believe we should talk to Putin,” President Alexander Stubb of Finland told the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung in an interview published Sunday. “We must do this together with the Americans, but at the same time ask ourselves whether American foreign policy toward Russia and Ukraine is currently in Europe’s interest. If not — and in certain aspects, it isn’t — then we must get involved.”
E.U. officials in recent weeks have been weighing ways to step up their roles in future talks. Sunday’s meeting in London is expected to advance those discussions.
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