EU leaders give themselves two weeks to name Europe's Ukraine negotiator

Europe's heads of state and government have one to two weeks to settle who speaks for the European Union at Ukraine peace talks, the holder of the bloc's rotating presidency said as an informal European Council opened in Dublin.

Irish premier Micheal Martin, whose country chairs the Council, told reporters the question "must be definitively resolved within one or two weeks" and that he hoped Friday's discussions would bring clarity before an extraordinary Council in a fortnight.

The dispute pits the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, against a model built on the US envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Kallas said she has no say over who represents Russia: "I know the Russians don't want me." She said all member states agreed in June 2024 that she represents the Union on foreign and security policy, and that leaders may change that decision if they wish.

Kallas also warned that debating European security architecture now would play into Moscow's hands. "We have an aggressor and a victim," she said, adding that the aggressor has no security concerns of its own.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said the priority was not who negotiates but how the war ends, urging leaders to "focus on the 'how', rather than the 'who'". Artificial intelligence was also on the Dublin agenda.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner wrote on X that "President Trump is determined to put an end to this horrible war," adding that while "significant differences remain, we are encouraged by the progress made" and pledging to pursue whatever diplomatic work is needed to reach a breakthrough.

Separately, a car exploded in Moscow's Chertanovo district, injuring Serghei Zavorotny, an adviser to former Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov, TASS reported. In Kyiv, debris from a Russian drone started a fire at a healthcare facility in the Shevchenkivskyi district, injuring three people; 30 were evacuated and seven rescued from the building. Russia's defence ministry said it downed 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight, while attacks on Russian targets killed at least four people.