{"id":457188,"date":"2026-06-17T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/17\/lue-cerca-canali-di-comunicazione-con-la-russia\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:35:12","slug":"the-eu-is-seeking-channels-of-communication-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/17\/the-eu-is-seeking-channels-of-communication-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU is seeking channels of communication with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 No mediation, because in the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the EU remains on Kyiv\u2019s side, but<strong> the European Union is now seeking channels of communication with Moscow<\/strong>. The aim of these overtures is to try to pave the way for possible negotiations. Admittedly, at a time when work is underway on the 21st package of sanctions and pressure is being kept high on the Russian Federation\u2014with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/15\/while-awaiting-the-21st-package-the-eu-imposes-further-sanctions-on-russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">additional restrictive measures<\/a> in addition to those currently being prepared\u2014the search for dialogue marks a significant change of course compared to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/policies\/sanctions-against-russia-explained\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>hardline stance maintained so far<\/b><\/a>&nbsp;by the twelve-star club.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>EU sources have confirmed to <em>Eunews<\/em> that \u201c<span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"it\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\"><strong>in recent weeks&#8221; between the EU and Russia &#8220;there have been brief diplomatic contacts to open channels of communication<\/strong>, but nothing of substance has been discussed.&#8221; The few exchanges that took place would therefore not have been at a high level at this stage. It is understood that an aide to the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa, led these talks. The initiative, officials in Brussels clarify, is not personal in nature. In recent weeks, Costa himself is said to have \u201ccoordinated closely with European leaders on a possible dialogue with Russia and on the issues to be discussed at the appropriate time.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201d The search for channels of communication therefore fits into this context.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, this diplomatic overture by the EU must not be interpreted as a surrender or a willingness to make concessions. On this point, EU sources wish to be clear:&nbsp;<strong>the European Union is not, and does not intend to be, a mediator<\/strong>. On the contrary, the EU <span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"it\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">supports Ukraine in its efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace. The Heads of State and Government of the EU Member States will discuss all of this at the European Council summit scheduled for tomorrow and Friday (18 and 19 June).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EU sources reveal that contacts with Moscow were initiated several weeks ago in a bid to find diplomatic avenues for resolving the conflict in Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":457173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[27175,27917,25803,26403,33394],"class_list":["post-457188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-diplomacy-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-war-russia-in-ukraine-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457189,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457188\/revisions\/457189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}