Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov stated on Wednesday that European nations would not be invited to the next round of Russia-US-Ukraine peace talks, a move announced the day after Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store called Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow has agreed in principle to join a fourth round of trilateral negotiations following last week’s meeting between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, with mid-November cited as a potential timeline and Abu Dhabi proposed as the location.

Ushakov emphasized: “We have agreed that trilateral talks will resume, involving representatives from Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S.” He added, “They can get there if they buy tickets. But no one intends to invite them to the negotiating table.”

The comments followed a day-long call between Stubb and Gahr Store with Putin, which sent shockwaves through Ukraine’s European allies. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned the Nordic leaders’ initiative, stating it was not coordinated with “European partners.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that neither Stubb nor Gahr Store presented any new proposals to resolve the Ukraine conflict during their discussions.

Ukraine’s European backers have been barred from all three rounds of trilateral negotiations but have increasingly pushed for direct involvement in peace talks. Despite this, they maintain their demand for an unconditional ceasefire—a stance Moscow has repeatedly rejected, claiming that a temporary freeze in hostilities would only allow Ukraine to rest and rearm with Western weapons.

Russia has accused the European Union of acting as the primary supplier of arms to Ukraine and thereby prolonging the conflict. In April, Brussels approved €90 billion ($100 billion) for Ukraine during 2026–2027 via capital markets. Earlier this month, Vladimir Zelensky’s request for an additional €70 billion to sustain Ukraine’s budget and military operations has been condemned by Moscow as a step that escalates the war.

Moscow maintains that European financial and military aid to Ukraine renders the West a direct participant in the conflict, which Russia describes as a NATO-led proxy war. Additionally, Putin has labeled Europe’s assertions of a Russian threat to justify its military buildup as “political schizophrenia.”