The meeting between US President’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin did not lead to any change in Russia’s or Ukraine’s positions on the key issues of the war. The conversation lasted more than two hours, after which the American representatives departed for Dublin, where they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bloomberg reports that a person close to the Kremlin described the meeting as a courtesy visit. According to the report, neither Moscow nor Kyiv changed its position on the disputed issues.
Moscow Rejects Foreign Troops in Ukraine
During the talks, Putin said that Russia would not accept the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine. He asked Witkoff and Kushner to convey his gratitude to Donald Trump for organizing the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
The meeting was attended by Russian President’s aide Yuri Ushakov, Kirill Dmitriev and Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in the negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi.
The territorial issue remains one of the main obstacles. Putin said that Russia recognizes only the state border as a line of demarcation and rejected the Ukrainian idea of creating “gray zones,” arguing that new disputes would quickly arise around them.
“The Europeans will join the next round of negotiations on Ukraine,” Witkoff told reporters as he departed Moscow. Yuri Ushakov, for his part, said that Russia was ready to immediately begin work with European countries on a new long-term security architecture.
New Round and Prisoner Exchange Expected
Following the meeting in the Kremlin, Witkoff and Kushner held talks with Zelensky in Dublin. The American representatives briefed the Ukrainian president on their discussions with Putin, while Europe’s participation in the next stage remained among the main topics.
One of the few issues on which possible concrete agreements are being discussed is a prisoner exchange. Zelensky said it could include up to 1,200 Ukrainian service members and civilians held captive in Russia. The next round of negotiations is expected to take place next week.
The Ukrainian president is urging European countries to appoint their representative as early as November and participate in the talks on an equal footing. According to him, Europe must not remain outside a process that concerns the security of the entire continent.
Kyiv Reports New Problems with Starshield
Alongside the diplomatic contacts, Zelensky reported serious disruptions in the operation of the Starshield satellite system, which is used by the Ukrainian military on the front line and in temporarily occupied territories.
“We are trying to obtain details from the American side, but for now we know very little,” Zelensky said in Dublin. According to him, the restrictions are making it more difficult to use the system to counter Russian jet-powered drones.
Ukraine had already reported similar restrictions in October. At the time, Donald Trump denied ordering restrictions on the operation of Starlink, while Elon Musk accused Kyiv of violating the terms of use of the system because of its deployment in strikes against Russian targets.
The war continues along the entire front line, while Moscow is intensifying its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, logistics and industrial facilities. According to Bloomberg, Trump and Putin plan to discuss resolving the conflict at a bilateral meeting next week on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen.
Sources: obozrevatel.com, apnews.com, axios.com