European officials will join this week's U.S.-mediated peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, France's foreign minister said Sunday, overriding Kremlin objections that the negotiations should remain a strictly three-way affair between Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv. "France will be there and will ensure that Europe's voice is heard," Jean-Noël Barrot told French radio. He did not specify who would represent Paris or whether European officials would participate directly in negotiations or merely observe. The meetings are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates capital. They mark the fourth round of Trump administration-brokered talks between the warring nations and the first since negotiations in Geneva in February. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier ruled out a European role, telling a Russian news channel on Friday that the trilateral format had already been agreed and accusing European governments of failing to decide who speaks for them. He acknowledged, however, that security discussions would eventually require Europe's involvement. President Trump met with Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Thursday and said a coming agreement was "going to involve more than Ukraine," adding it "might involve all of Europe." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN on Friday that he had not been given details of the agreement Trump referenced and warned: "For me, it's not simple, and it can be dangerous." He invoked the 1945 Yalta conference, where Allied leaders divided Europe without the input of several affected nations. The talks restart after a lengthy stall. Moscow confirmed it would return to the table only following a visit by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October. Those discussions produced the release of an American prisoner from a Russian jail—an apparent Kremlin gesture following Trump's earlier lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel exports, a move Ukraine vehemently opposed as helping replenish Moscow's war chest. Witkoff has said the agenda will include postwar security arrangements, de-escalation of the conflict, and humanitarian issues. The meetings follow a limited ceasefire brokered with the help of first lady Melania Trump that allowed humanitarian aid into a town inside Russian-occupied Ukraine. Russia's delegation will again be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Putin aide who has participated in most talks with Ukraine since the failed first round in March 2022. For the first time, the talks will also include Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, as well as Yury Zhigarlovsky, a deputy head of the General Staff's operations directorate, alongside military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov. The more senior lineup could signal Moscow is readier to address thorny political and military questions, though the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War has suggested some of those same officials previously sought to slow down negotiations or push harder on Moscow's demands. The gaps between the two countries remain substantial. Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede large parts of its territory and renounce NATO membership. Zelenskyy has repeatedly insisted any security commitments must be clearly spelled out, including who would act and how if Russia attacked again. Some analysts expect little. In an op-ed for the Atlantic Council, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst argued that Putin had rejected every U.S. proposal Kyiv accepted and preferred participating in peace talks to pursuing actual peace. "Perhaps the only outcome of the talks," he wrote, "will be to agree to another round." The Abu Dhabi meetings follow Democrats' midterm victories, which Zelenskyy said could improve Ukraine's chances of more U.S. aid. Russia, too, may be looking to push for the Trump administration's outlines of a Ukraine deal before a Democratic-controlled Congress arrives in January. Also hovering over the talks is the prospect of Trump, Xi Jinping, and Putin gathering for a trilateral meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, later this month. All sides have confirmed discussions are underway, though details remain murky. As officials travel to Abu Dhabi to talk peace, the war has raged on. Zelenskyy said Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles at the Kyiv area overnight Saturday, with only four intercepted, accusing Moscow of treating diplomacy "as a form of aggression." In southern Ukraine, the death toll from a guided-bomb strike Monday on an aid distribution site in Komyshuvakha rose to at least 55.