As Europe hunts for a suitable mediator to negotiate a Ukraine war ceasefire deal with Russia, the Kremlin has ruled out any talks as Europe is party to the conflict, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 29.

"Europe is currently a party to the conflict as it is taking Ukraine’s side. Don’t forget that European weapons are being used for attacks on us, and this cannot be ignored. That said, Europe can in no way claim the role of mediator," Peskov said, TASS reports.

Europe has changed its tone on engaging with Russia as the war in Ukraine drags into its fifth year and the economic pain of the boomerang effect of sanctions on Russia increasingly bounce back on the increasingly dysfunctional European economy, doing more damage to European industry than they are doing to Russia’s.

The initiative was kicked off by French President Emmanuel Macron in December who called for a resumption of diplomatic relations and sent his head of foreign policy to Moscow for initial talks. Since then several more prominent leaders have added their voices to the calls, including Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has suggested that Berlin would be prepared to reengage with the Kremlin after effectively breaking diplomatic relations after the war started in February 2022.

The search for a suitable interlocutor got a boost after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the Kremlin would also be open to negotiating in remarks in a press conference following the May 9 Victory Day parade. Putin suggested that his old friend and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schoeder would be a suitable candidate, but ruled out talks with anyone that has been “spitting insults at us.”

That restriction will considerably narrow the field as most of Europe’s anti-Russia rhetoric has been vitriolic over the last four years. One of the most obvious candidates for the job should have been EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, but she is one of the most outspoken critics of Russia, calling for its breakup and questioning its role in the victory over the Nazis in 1945 – something the Kremlin found particularly offensive. Peskov has explicitly ruled out any interaction with Kallas, who he called “incompetent.”

The suggestion that the EU engage with Russia comes at a time when the US has frozen its efforts to broker a peace. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted last week that US efforts to bring the Ukraine conflict to a halt have stalled and no talks are currently taking place.

"But we hope that will change because that war can only end with a negotiated settlement. It will not end with a military victory by one side or the other, at least from a traditional standpoint of how military victories are defined," he noted.

Nevertheless, Peskov tempered his comments, saying the very fact that the European Union is trying to find someone who will be able to start a conversation with Russia is a good thing: "They aren’t sifting through mediators but through those who can start a conversation with Russia. This alone is a positive fact and should be welcomed."

However, getting talks off the ground after four years will be extremely difficult. The EU elite have been meeting in Cyprus to discuss possible candidates and are due to meet again in June at a summit to continue the conversation, but there is no guarantee that the Kremlin will agree to meet with anyone the EU puts forward. The European Commission (EC) has already ruled out Schroeder as too close to Putin.

No one in Europe "has so far named" specific candidates for talks, Peskov, who declined to answer journalists’ questions about how Russia would react if a name is put forward.