A senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin bluntly told French envoys to "go to hell" when they requested European participation in Ukraine peace negotiations, according to diplomatic sources, in a dismissive rejection that underscores Europe's diminishing influence over decisions that will shape its own security environment.
The confrontation occurred during a February 2026 visit to Moscow by Emmanuel Bonne, President Emmanuel Macron's diplomatic adviser, and Bertrand Buchwalter, a senior foreign policy official. When the French delegation argued that European states deserved a seat at peace negotiations given their substantial support for Ukraine, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov reportedly responded: "Sorry, but actually no, we don't have it, go to hell."
The crude dismissal reflects a broader Russian strategy of excluding Europe from determining the continent's own security architecture. Moscow appears intent on negotiating directly with Washington, treating European governments as irrelevant to outcomes that will fundamentally reshape the balance of power from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. The parallel with Yalta is instructive. In 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin divided Europe into spheres of influence with minimal input from the nations whose fates they were deciding. Now, three generations later, the prospect of American-Russian negotiations determining Ukraine's future without European participation evokes that same sense of great powers disposing of smaller nations' sovereignty.

