Europe to join next round of Russia talks: US, Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US envoy Jared Kushner on Thursday said Europe would join the next round of talks with Moscow, as Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated he would 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 US envoy Steve Witkoff held more than four hours of talks with Putin in the Kremlin before jetting to debrief Zelenskiy in Dublin.

Zelenskiy said Europeans will take part rather than remain “separately” on the sidelines as they were in Abu Dhabi, adding that they “will have a voice.”

From left, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff speak to reporters in Dublin on Thursday.

Photo: Reuters

Kushner reiterated the sentiment in a post on X, writing: “both sides have now agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners.”

“Significant differences remain, but we are encouraged by the progress made,” he wrote, adding that the schedule and details on the negotiating track would be released “shortly.”

Five European capitals and the European Commission met the US envoys, and a new multilateral meeting “will be fixed soon,” an EU official said,

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 said it had 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.

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 “gray” — or demilitarized — 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 organizing what he called a “humanitarian mission” to the city of Kostyantynivka, where he said some 400 to 500 civilians still lived.

Russia in the summer said it had captured the city, but Ukraine said fighting there is ongoing.

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

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