US, Ukraine say Europe to join Russia talks as Putin sticks to hardline stance

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and US envoy Jared Kushner said Thursday Europe would join the next round of talks with Russia, as Vladimir Putin indicated Moscow will not compromise on its hardline demands to end almost five years of war.

In a packed day of shuttle diplomacy following negotiations in Abu Dhabi, Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff held over four hours of talks with Putin in the Kremlin before jetting to debrief Zelensky in Dublin.

As they spoke to journalists on the tarmac of a military airbase in Ireland, the main piece of progress touted by the Ukrainian leader and US President Donald Trump’s representative was that European negotiators would be at the table for future talks.

Zelensky said Europeans will take part rather than remain “separately” on the sidelines as they were in Abu Dhabi, insisting: “They will have a voice”.

“We cannot conclude this deal without Europeans being at the table,” Kushner said, adding that Putin was “willing to give it a try”.

An EU official told AFP representatives of five European capitals as well as the European Commission also met the US envoys, and that a new multilateral meeting “will be fixed soon”.

The Kremlin did not confirm Putin had agreed to include Europe in future talks, which Kyiv and its allies have long been seeking.

Instead the Russian leader had earlier told the US duo he would not water down demands to control parts of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed and ruled out agreeing to foreign peacekeeping troops in Ukraine — a deployment he said would be a “continuation of war”.

Putin’s comments appeared to douse hopes a peace deal could be getting nearer.

As the US has pushed for Europe to be allowed at the table, Moscow has sought to reframe talks as part of a wider discussion about European security.

Kyiv and European leaders have insisted there is no need to rewrite the arrangements underpinning the continent’s security, and said Russia must first stop hostilities.

In the Irish capital for a summit of European leaders, Zelensky meanwhile said fresh restrictions on the Starshield satellite internet service were hampering Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russia’s jet-drones, meaning “more of our people are killed”.

No ‘grey’ zones

Usually held behind closed doors, the Kremlin chose to televise a lengthy opening exchange between Putin and the US envoys.

The Russian leader rejected talk of a possible territorial settlement involving “grey” — or demilitarised — zones between Ukrainian and Russian positions.

“For us, there is only one line of demarcation: the state border. Because then it will be clear and obvious: here are we, and here are you,” he said.

Russia has seized swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine since launching its full-scale offensive in 2022, in addition to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and territory that was under the control of Russian-backed separatists.

Moscow has formally annexed four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — despite not having full control over them, annexations rejected by Kyiv and the West as illegal.

Putin proposed organising what he called a “humanitarian mission” to the city of Kostyantynivka, where he said some 400-500 civilians still lived.

Russia claimed in the summer to have captured the city, but Ukraine insists fighting there is ongoing.

The idea would be modelled on a short-term truce that last month allowed hundreds of stranded locals to flee the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine.

Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to Ukraine’s Zelensky, warned Russia would try to rotate in new troops “under the cover of a humanitarian operation”.

Putin also repeated his long-standing objection to any foreign troops being deployed to Ukraine as a post-war peacekeeping force — saying Moscow would see any such deployment a “legitimate target”.

United vision

European countries have been rattled by Russia pushing a review of the entire continent’s security architecture, with the US also floating a new framework.

That is widely seen as a reference to Moscow’s long-standing demands to push back the Nato military alliance in eastern Europe and end Western military support to Kyiv.

As European leaders gathered in Dublin, EU chief Antonio Costa said “there is no need to reinvent the wheel” on Europe’s security framework as he accused Russia of wrecking it by attacking Ukraine.

In a French-backed declaration, 39 countries insisted “any matter affecting European security should be decided with the Europeans”.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile urged Europe to rally behind a “clear and united vision” on what it wants from Ukraine talks — as Russia and the US push Europe to name a single representative they can deal with.

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