Photo copyright: Reuters
US presidential envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, after Thursday's talks with Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, said that Moscow and Kyiv agreed with Washington's proposal to involve European representatives in peace talks, which resumed this week in a trilateral format - Russia, Ukraine and the United States. However, the Kremlin did not confirm its agreement.
On Thursday, Kushner and his colleague Witkoff held talks with Putin in Moscow before meeting with Zelensky in Dublin.
“Both sides agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners,” Kushner wrote in X after the meetings.
In turn, Zelensky said in a telegram: “We are even more actively involving European representatives in diplomacy so that they are at the negotiating table on equal terms.”
Although just the day before he said that the US proposal to discuss a new “European security architecture” seemed “somewhat strange” to him, because Europe had been trying to maintain good relations with Russia for decades.
Putin’s assistant Yuri Ushakov, in his commentary on the results of the negotiations published on the Kremlin website, did not confirm Moscow’s consent to the participation of Europeans in further peace negotiations.
“They are trying in every possible way to join the negotiations, but, as our president said, they must decide whether they want peace or a continuation of the war,” Ushakov said.
He was referring to a phrase uttered by Putin in the first minutes of his meeting with Witkoff and Kushner. Putin asked them to “work with your European allies so that they ultimately decide on the question of what they want - peace or war in Ukraine.”
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Kushner, in turn, said that he and Witkoff see “certain progress on the European side” - “they are expressing a desire to participate in negotiations, they are expressing a desire to end this conflict.”
The first trilateral negotiations since February with the participation of Russia, Ukraine and the United States took place on November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi. Upon their completion, Kushner said that he would try to convince Putin to allow the Europeans to join the negotiation process.
“This will allow us to simultaneously discuss both territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia and broader aspects of the post-war European security system,” Kushner wrote after meetings with Putin and Zelensky.
“For hostilities to cease completely, reliable security guarantees are needed,” he added. “We will begin to discuss these interrelated issues in parallel.”
The day before the meetings of American mediators with Putin in Moscow and Zelensky in Dublin, Axios sources described the idea as follows: in parallel with discussing the conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, it is necessary to discuss the “security architecture” in Europe, which Moscow insisted on. Moreover, Russia must present updated demands, and not those that Putin presented in 2021 before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ushakov said Putin reminded Witkoff and Kushner of his vision of the “supporting elements of an indivisible security architecture” that he spoke about in 2021. “We want to add some of our fresh considerations,” Putin’s aide indirectly confirmed the information to Axios.
“The Europeans will join at the next meeting,” Witkoff said Thursday.
It is unclear when the next round of negotiations will take place. Ushakov said nothing about this, and Kushner wrote in X: “In the near future we plan to announce the formats of negotiations, the schedule of meetings and other details.”
Zelensky, welcoming the inclusion of Europeans in the dialogue, expressed hope that steps aimed at a ceasefire will be included in the negotiations agenda. The Kremlin rules out a ceasefire until agreements on the conditions for ending the war are concluded.
“We agreed that we will work on an agenda regarding de-escalation, a possible ceasefire,” the Ukrainian president told reporters. “I hope that such an agenda will be formed.”
After a meeting in Dublin, Zelensky and Kushner announced the “largest wartime” exchange of prisoners of war. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, also spoke about a new large-scale exchange on Wednesday after negotiations in Abu Dhabi. It is unknown when the prisoner exchange will take place and how many people will be released.
In addition to the exchange of prisoners, the news was Putin’s statement about his readiness to conduct another humanitarian mission following the example of the operation in Aleshki (Ukrainian name - Oleshki). He proposed repeating the successful experience in the city of Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region, over which Russia has been claiming control since July of this year.
“There are still about 400-500 civilians there. Let’s do the same thing we did in Aleshki,” Putin said at a meeting with Witkoff and Kushner. — In my opinion, this settlement is controlled by Russian troops, we will ensure security on our part. We need five days to clear the approaches to this settlement.”
Ukraine has not yet supported Putin's proposal. Presidential adviser Dmitry Litvin told reporters: “Well, considering that they brought equipment into Aleshki and rotated the military under the guise of a humanitarian operation, it is clear what they want in Konstantinovka. But we need to find out all the details.”
“At the same time, we’ll see who controls this settlement. For what? In order to understand what is the most acceptable result for ending this conflict, including territorial issues,” Putin said on Thursday.
“There is only one clear line - the state border line,” he added. The Kremlin demands that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donbass region, which it successfully defends. Kyiv considers Moscow's demand impossible. Kushner acknowledged during the negotiations that the territorial issue remains the most difficult.
This year, Russia has not achieved significant territorial gains and is actively attacking Ukrainian infrastructure, Reuters comments. Ukraine, in turn, attacks Russian refineries. US President Donald Trump twice stated that Moscow and Kyiv were ready to conclude an “energy truce”, but the parties did not confirm this.
On Friday night, Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles carried out a massive attack on Volgograd, killing four employees of one of the enterprises, said Governor Andrei Bocharov. He did not confirm the version that the target of the attack was the Lukoil oil refinery. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced the day before that five largest Russian oil refineries were attacked in November.
Russian negotiators in Abu Dhabi said Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine because U.S. President Joe Biden failed to respond to his 2021 letter outlining Russia's security concerns, according to Axios sources. In response, Kushner and Witkoff pointed out that the world has changed a lot since 2021.
According to Axios, American mediators proposed preparing a new project that would reflect not only Russia’s demands, but also the “symmetrical steps” that Moscow is ready to take, and also agree to the participation of European representatives in future negotiations.
“We agreed with President Zelensky to maintain close contact with him and his team,” Kushner wrote in X. “We also confirmed that no agreements regarding European security as a whole will be made without taking into account Ukraine’s security interests. We will begin to discuss these interrelated issues in parallel.”
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