Europe scrambles to join Ukraine talks as EU nations attempt to bolster militaries – Europe live

Ukraine’s and the US negotiating teams will meet soon, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said, adding that Kyiv would focus on specific steps in peace proposals.

“Our expectations are concrete results. Concrete results so that progress can be made,” Sybiha told a news briefing in comments reported by Reuters. “It is extremely important for us, and Ukraine has demonstrated this repeatedly, to achieve a truce.”

A US group has identified several obscure but potentially key sanctions it says could seriously disrupt Russia’s war effort in Ukraine after last month’s targeting of the Kremlin’s biggest oil firms.

Previous rounds of sanctions have been applied to Russian energy companies, banks, military suppliers and the “shadow fleet” of ships carrying Russian oil.

But Dekleptocracy, a civil society group that researches Russia’s war economy, says chemicals used to make mechanical lubricants and military-grade tyres are a vulnerability that US, UK and EU policymakers could exploit.

Kristofer Harrison, the group’s president and a former US state department expert on Russia, described the targets as “weedy and specific”, unlike the microchips and oil companies that generally draw the attention of governments and agencies. But they are hard to replace and essential to Moscow’s ability to field tanks and fight, Dekleptocracy says.

“A lubricant shortage would seriously damage Russia’s war machine,” it wrote in its latest report.

Only a handful of companies worldwide make chemical additives for mechanical lubricants – motor oil for tanks and cars. Almost all of them stopped selling the chemicals to Russia at the start of its full-scale invasion, leading to widespread shortages and complaints from motorists.

Dekleptocracy found that one Chinese company, Xinxiang Richful, now satisfies a large part of Russia’s demand, supplying up to eight million kilograms a year. Richful recently set up an office in Virginia.

Blocking it, as well as a few smaller suppliers, would create a mechanical lubricant shortage in Russia, the group says.

Xinxiang Richful did not respond to a request for comment.

DeKleptocracy also found that Russia has little domestic capability to make vulcanisation accelerants and other substances needed to produce military-grade tyres.

Turkey’s defence ministry said that a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia must be achieved first before any discussions can take place on possible troop deployment for a potential reassurance force, Reuters reported.

On Tuesday, French president Emmanuel Macron said the force would have French, British and Turkish soldiers. Ankara, which has maintained cordial ties with both Moscow and Kyiv during the war, has said it was open to discussing such a deployment but only if its modalities were set.

“First, a ceasefire must be established between Russia and Ukraine. Afterward, a mission framework must be established with a clear mandate, and the extent to which each country will contribute must be determined,” the ministry said at a press briefing when asked about Macron’s comments.

In the last few minutes, the Russian foreign ministry has said it summoned Poland’s top diplomat to Moscow to let him know it would close the Polish consulate general in Irkutsk from 30 December.

The decision comes as a “retaliatory measure” after Poland’s closure of the Russian consulate in Gdańsk after a rail sabotage attack earlier this month, which Warsaw blamed on the Russian intelligence services, calling it an act of “state terrorism.”

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, insisted that Ukraine can still successfully defend itself, pushing back on the narrative “peddled by Russia,” as he insisted that it’s not Kyiv, but Moscow, who must face pressure to agree to peace.

His comments come as European governments continue to plan how they could influence the US-led peace talks on ending the Russian war on Ukraine ahead of further crunch talks expected as early as next week, with the legally tricky issue of somehow using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine still remaining close to the top of the list.

But there is also growing focus on Europe’s own defence.

Later today, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will unveil proposals for a new voluntary military service to boost the country’s defences without having to return to regular conscription. Under plans, France will see the number of its reservist grow to 100,000 by 2030.

The new volunteers would not serve in overseas missions like a potential peacekeeping deployment to Ukraine, Macron is expected to stress in a bid to quash domestic criticism of the idea.

The issue of ramping up national – and European – military and potential participation in the future Ukraine mission is also likely to come up during talks between Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Estonia’s Kristen Michel in Berlin.

I will bring you all the key updates throughout the day.

It’s Thursday, 27 November 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.