The first day of the EU summit was meant to be about China and a celebration of Ukraine’s membership bid. But a dinner where leaders were expected to hash out a long-awaited strategy for dealing with rising Chinese dominance in the global economy was waylaid until nearly 11 pm by bickering about Russia’s war in Ukraine.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The EU27 glad-handed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, celebrating the formal opening of EU membership talks. The mood shifted when he left the room and discussion quickly turned to the vexed question of engagement with the Kremlin – which is showing no desire to negotiate for peace. EU leaders clashed over which constellation of countries should lead potential talks with Russia in future. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, pushed for Britain to be involved and said it was a question of Europe taking the lead, rather than merely the EU. Merz favoured operating under the E3 diplomatic format of France, Britain and Germany. Poland’s Donald Tusk, however, wanted a wider group of countries to lead the talks than the E3, of which it is not a member. The formation is also tainted by its negotiation of the Minsk accords with Russia in 2015 after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, who is also no fan of the E3 club, pushed European leaders to appoint a single EU envoy to open a dialogue with Moscow.