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UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell tried to open a back channel to Russian President Vladimir Putin as Britain and its closest European allies feared the Trump administration could sideline their interests over Ukraine.
Powell, a veteran negotiator who played a crucial role in securing peace in Northern Ireland, called Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov earlier this year, according to three people briefed on the attempts.
The approach from Powell was envisaged as a way to ensure the position of the UK and other European countries was correctly communicated to the Russians, according to the three people.
It came amid fears in Europe over President Donald Trump’s inconsistent approach to supporting Ukraine and concerns that US interests under his administration were diverging from those of European nations, the people said.
But the phone call between Powell and Ushakov proved to be a one-off and failed to open up a new line into Putin’s inner circle, according to the people briefed on the matter, with one saying it “did not go well”.
Powell’s call was not part of a co-ordinated G7 outreach but rather the UK’s independent initiative, backed by some European capitals, a European official said.
“The worry is that we are outsourcing the discussions with the Russians to the Americans,” they added.
Downing Street said that it was normal for the UK to “regularly engage with the Russian government, including through our embassy in Moscow”.
A UK official said Powell had not spoken to Ushakov in recent months, including around Trump’s unilateral August meeting with Putin in Alaska — a time of peak anxiety for European powers.
The UK official did not otherwise dispute that Powell, who was hired by Sir Keir Starmer last year, had sought to build a back channel.
The Kremlin declined to comment.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin maintained an increasingly hostile tone towards Europe and the US.
That changed after Trump took office in January 2025 promising to end the war in Ukraine, a conflict he had claimed he could solve in “24 hours”.
US-Russia relations thawed as Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Putin’s demands for territory.
The shift in relations culminated in Trump and Putin’s August meeting in Alaska. But the summit did not go well, with Trump abruptly ending it early and cancelling a planned lunch after Putin stuck to his demands that Kyiv surrender territory still held by Ukrainian forces.
Starmer and other European leaders have pushed to keep Trump onside, including flying to Washington to support Zelenskyy in a meeting with Trump days after the Alaska summit.
Trump’s frustration with Putin has apparently grown in recent weeks, however, as the Russian president has shown little willingness to enter peace talks and has increased strikes against civilian targets in Ukraine.
Two weeks ago, the US imposed the toughest sanctions on Russia’s oil sector since the start of the war, and Trump has talked openly about potentially resuming nuclear weapons testing for the first time in 30 years.
A second European official said there was concern among some allies about Powell’s outreach “before more pressure is applied” on Russia through sanctions and other measures, which aim to make Moscow negotiate an end to the war from the weakest possible position.
There was also a fear that the Trump administration might be antagonised by Powell’s attempt to open up a separate communications channel outside the US-led efforts to secure peace talks, they added.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Europe of obstructing Ukraine peace talks, despite efforts to get Putin to the negotiating table, while simultaneously attempting to undermine Europe by claiming it is subservient to the US.
“It was clear the EU didn’t have much sovereignty before,” Putin said in televised remarks in August. “Now it’s clear it has none at all.”