American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in an effort to give fresh impetus to talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting lasted about two hours, after which the two representatives of President Donald Trump travelled to Dublin and held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for more than an hour.
The main outcome of the meeting was Witkoff’s stated intention for European representatives to participate in the next round of talks. “The Europeans will participate in the next meeting,” the American envoy told Russian state television. In Dublin, Zelenskyy said that Europe should be part of the talks themselves and have its own voice, rather than participating only in parallel formats.
No Breakthrough on Territorial Issues
The two days of talks in Abu Dhabi were the first direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives, mediated by the United States, in nine months. The sides reported some progress, but no breakthrough on the main issues, including territorial disputes and future security guarantees. Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, while Kyiv refuses to surrender the rest of Donbas.
Moscow and Kyiv have reached an agreement on a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war, but its exact size has not yet been announced. Zelenskyy described the humanitarian outcome as potentially the largest exchange since the beginning of the war. He also pointed to preparations for new multilateral meetings as a third outcome of the diplomatic contacts.
Moscow Sets Conditions for a European Role
Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov described the talks as “substantive, constructive, frank and useful.” According to him, the Russian president recalled Moscow’s proposals from 2021 concerning restrictions on NATO’s military presence in Central and Eastern Europe.
Putin said that the presence of European troops in Ukraine after a possible ceasefire would be “absolutely unacceptable” to Russia. According to him, Moscow would view such a deployment as a threat to its security and as a legitimate target. The Russian president also insisted that any future peace agreement should take into account the four Ukrainian regions that Russia declared annexed in 2022.
No date has been announced for the next round of talks. Following his meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Zelenskyy said that the diplomatic process would continue and that Europe should participate on an equal footing in discussions on ending the war and on the future security of the continent.
Sources: reuters.com, apnews.com, marketscreener.com