Alarm in Europe over US plans for ‘security deal’ with Russia

European capitals have voiced alarm at the Trump administration’s claim to be working on a new “framework” for European security with Russia as part of a future peace deal in Ukraine.

Donald Trump met Kirill Dmitriev, a senior Russian official and one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s envoys to the talks, at the White House on Thursday evening.

“There’s going to be an agreement; it’s going to be a big agreement, and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” the US president told reporters afterwards. “It’s going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe.”

Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, wrote on X later that Washington was seeking to “develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides”, including “an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability”.

European capitals oppose using Ukraine peace talks to negotiate a new security architecture for the Continent, fearing Moscow would seek to reassert its sphere of influence and erode the sovereignty of its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) neighbours. They also worry that the Trump administration could strike a deal with Russia at the expense of European security.

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“It’s up to the European Union to decide on matters that affect its security,” a spokesperson for the European Commission said on Friday.

One European official described Kushner’s message as a “complete surprise”.

“There will be no simultaneous negotiations on European security until the war [against Ukraine] is over. Besides, we know what the Russians mean by that and it will not happen,” the official said.

“There has been absolutely no talk about the future of Nato and everyone is unanimous that any changes to Nato or reduction of its presence are out of the question.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week acknowledged for the first time that “answers to the questions Russia is raising” about its own security could be part of a peace settlement, but only with “Europe’s involvement”.

Security guarantees for Russia “mean changing the security framework in Europe and the world”, Zelenskiy told reporters, adding that any Nato rollback would be “a sign of weakness for the alliance”.

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Kushner and US special envoy Steve Witkoff have stepped up their efforts to engage with Kyiv, Moscow and select European capitals in advance of planned talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi next week. They have also laid out a series of potential economic and investment deals between the US and Russia.

A second European official said US comments about involving Europe in a greater negotiation with Russia about the continent’s security architecture were designed to show there was progress in the lead-up to the Abu Dhabi talks.

Dmitriev and a Ukrainian delegation were invited to the White House by Melania Trump, who was involved in brokering a local ceasefire to allow the evacuation of Ukrainian civilians from Russian-occupied Oleshky. The US first lady, as well as Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the Oleshky ceasefire, said they hoped it could be extended to other parts of Ukraine.

But two people involved in back-channel efforts to end the war said it was unlikely that the Abu Dhabi talks would lead to any meaningful ceasefire, as Putin was focused on regaining the upper hand through a brutal winter campaign of air strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Moscow viewed the shift in focus from territorial issues to security guarantees as a way to drag out the talks further while it weakened Ukraine’s military position, one of them said.

The Russian president views his air strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s drone attacks on refineries and commercial warehouses in Russia this summer and blames Kyiv for the collapse of previous ceasefires, according to another person.

“I will destroy all your infrastructure until you agree,” the second person said, relaying Putin’s position. “By next year Ukraine won’t have any infrastructure left. All the bridges, ports, railways, energy infrastructure, power stations ... will have been destroyed.”

Putin has demanded Ukraine surrender the remaining part of the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for a ceasefire. He expected further Ukrainian territorial concessions in exchange for any security guarantees provided by Nato countries as part of any eventual agreement, the second person said.

European capitals have sought greater input in the US-led talks that have yielded scant progress since Trump’s return to power almost two years ago, but are divided over how to proceed or who should represent them.

Officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Nato and the EU took part in talks in Brussels this week with US and Ukrainian officials. The leaders of Finland and Norway held a telephone call with Putin last week.

EU leaders are set to discuss forming a more coherent and united approach to the peace discussions at a summit next week, after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called them out on Thursday for their “disjointed, uncoordinated” efforts that “risk condemning Europe to irrelevance in the negotiation process”.

“All these negotiations are very unstructured, jumpy and chaotic,” the first European official said. “It is not like there is a document or draft agreement that is being negotiated.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026