MOSCOW — Russia has no intention, plans or reason to attack any European country, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at a roundtable in Moscow held under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), in remarks released on November 10 — the same day Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators open a new round of talks in Abu Dhabi. According to a release posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website, Ryabkov said Russia poses no threat to anyone and has no plans to attack any country in the near, medium or long term, adding that Moscow would be “forced to respond” if subjected to aggression.
Source: IANS, Nov 10 2026
Ryabkov accused Western governments of discussing the possibility of a military conflict in Europe as if it were “almost predetermined and inevitable.” He also said some European governments had no genuine intention of ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict: in his account, the conflict could have been resolved while taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, but the West had pushed Ukraine to abandon reasonable solutions and choose war. Those are Moscow's characterisations, reported here as Ryabkov stated them; Kyiv and European governments reject that version of how the war began and has continued.
Source: IANS, Nov 10 2026
On the future of Russia-Europe relations, Ryabkov said Moscow believes European countries would sooner or later be willing to engage in dialogue with Russia on the basis of equality, indivisible security, pragmatism and mutual consideration of interests, Xinhua news agency reported. Long-term stability in Europe cannot be achieved without taking into account the interests of Russia and its allies, he said.
Source: IANS, Nov 10 2026
Russia's Vienna envoy attacked NATO's “escalation management” idea
At the same event, Yulia Zhdanova, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, said European countries had offered their populations no vision of the future other than the notion that a conflict with Russia was inevitable. She described NATO's concept of “escalation management” as harmful, saying it was a mistake to believe that an escalation between Russia and NATO could be kept under control; the concept effectively encourages NATO and the European Union to act recklessly and does nothing to reduce military risks, she said.
Source: IANS, Nov 10 2026
Ryabkov is not speaking in the abstract this week: he is a named member of the Russian delegation — led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, with GRU chief Igor Kostyukov — at the Abu Dhabi talks that open on November 10. Read the earlier report: Russia names its full Abu Dhabi delegation
Europe's top diplomat gave the opposite reading a day earlier
The OSCE remarks land against a sharply different European assessment. In Paris on Monday, where G7 foreign ministers are meeting, the European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters she saw little sign of Russian goodwill to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. “So far they have just been pretending that they negotiate because we haven't seen any goodwill from the Russian side,” Kallas said. “They are bombing Kyiv, they are bombing civilians.” Russia denies targeting civilians, Reuters noted, but has stepped up aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent months. The EU is currently negotiating a 22nd package of sanctions on Russia.
Source: Reuters (Kaja Kallas interview, Paris), Nov 9 2026
What is solid
- Ryabkov said at an OSCE roundtable in Moscow that Russia has no intention, plans or reason to attack any European country, and no plans to attack any country in the near, medium or long term — Russian Foreign Ministry release, reported by IANS
- He added a condition: Moscow would be “forced to respond” if subjected to aggression — IANS
- Zhdanova, Russia's Vienna arms-control envoy, called NATO's “escalation management” concept harmful and said a Russia-NATO escalation could not be kept under control — IANS
- Ryabkov is a named member of Russia's delegation to the Abu Dhabi talks opening November 10 — Kremlin announcement reported earlier
What is only claimed
- Why Europe is arming: Ryabkov says Western governments treat a war with Russia as near-inevitable and some have no genuine intent to end the Ukraine war; European officials such as Kallas say Russia is the one bombing civilians while 'pretending' to negotiate — the two accounts are directly opposed and are reported here as attributed claims
- Whether the no-attack pledge changes European planning: it is a statement of intent from a deputy foreign minister, not a treaty or a verifiable commitment, and European governments have heard similar assurances before the 2022 invasion — readers should weigh it as a diplomatic signal, not a guarantee
What happens next
Ryabkov now carries this message into Abu Dhabi, where the trilateral talks run November 10–11 and where, on the US account, the agenda reaches beyond Ukraine to a broader European security architecture. If Moscow genuinely wants Europe's militarisation debate to cool, the test is not a roundtable line in Moscow but what its delegation accepts in Abu Dhabi — on ceasefire steps, on security guarantees, and on whether European representatives get any role in the arrangements that follow. For the lakhs of Indian and Punjabi workers and students across Europe, the difference between a rhetorical pledge and a real de-escalation is not academic: a wider Russia-Europe war is the scenario European capitals have been planning around, and anything that credibly lowers that risk matters well beyond the negotiating table.