Europe is not there yet, but signs are emerging that it is preparing to talk to Moscow.

Any move in that direction would still leave the EU on the back foot, after Donald Trump spent months pressing for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Even so, it would still mark a significant step away from a strategy that has done little to stop the bloodshed.

The European Commission accepted on Monday that “obviously at some point there will have to be talks also with President Putin.” As the pro-Brussels insider paper Politico put it on Tuesday, “the unthinkable is now being thought in the European Union.”

This was after Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said last Friday that a European special envoy should be appointed to talk to Russia, accepting that “if Europe speaks to only one of the two sides on the field, I fear that the contribution it can make will be limited.”

French president Emmanuel Macron also last month said Europe must talk with Moscow if ongoing U.S. efforts to end the conflict fail.

Either a robust and lasting peace is reached, with the required [security] guarantees, or we will need in the weeks ahead to find ways for Europeans to re-engage in a fulsome dialogue with Russia, and in complete transparency.

Importantly, the Kremlin responded to this by saying Putin had “expressed readiness to engage in dialogue” with his French counterpart.

What’s more, those calling for talks are not suggesting this will solve everything overnight, but that it would be an important step towards peace. One French official quoted in Politico said:

They’re not naive about what can be reached through these discussions, but on the balance between not engaging and engaging, there’s a growing appreciation in some capitals.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has long called for peace talks.

Despite Brussels having spent so much time refusing to talk to Moscow, Commission spokesman Paula Pinho said on Monday that “unfortunately, we’re not seeing any signs [from] President Putin to be engaging in such talks.”

Trump also said on Sunday that “we’re making progress” in bringing the war to an end.