Europe will be excluded from talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, the United States lead Ukraine envoy said.

General Keith Kellogg made the announcement on Saturday after the US sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

Trump took European allies by surprise this week by calling Russia’s President Vladimir Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to Ukraine peace talks.

The Trump administration has made it clear to European allies in NATO to take primary responsibility for the region, stating that the US has other priorities, such as border security and countering China.

Asked if he could assure the audience that Ukrainians and Europeans would be at the table for talks, Kellogg told a global security conference in Munich that “the answer to that last question, just as you framed it, is no”.

Ukrainians, however, will “of course” be at the table, he said, adding it would be foolish to suggest otherwise.

European leaders were swift to react.

“There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told the same security conference in Munich. “But this means that Europe needs to get its act together. Europe needs to talk less and do more.”

A European diplomat said the US questionnaire included six queries, with one specifically for European Union member states.

“The Americans are approaching European capitals and asking how many soldiers they are ready to deploy,” one diplomat said, the Reuters news agency reported.