Ukraine War News: Europe to Join Next Peace Talks
The ukraine war news out of Moscow and Dublin on Thursday is the clearest sign yet that the most active American peace push in months is widening beyond the three countries at the table. United States envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, and then flew to Ireland late on Thursday to brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, carrying word that European negotiators will join the next round of talks with Russia. The move, announced by the American envoys after the Moscow meeting, would give Europe a seat at the negotiating table it has sought for months, and it could mark a breakthrough in a process that has so far been run almost entirely by Washington.
The announcement came at the end of a packed day of shuttle diplomacy. Kushner and Witkoff held more than four hours of talks with Putin in the Kremlin, according to reports of the meeting, before flying directly to Dublin, where they held late-night talks with Zelensky at a military airbase. The trips followed two days of talks in Abu Dhabi between Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators, the first of their kind since February, which ended without a breakthrough. The envoys arrived in Moscow carrying the results of those talks, and they left carrying a new promise to put to Kyiv: that the next round would be bigger, with Europeans in the room.
Europe to Join the Next Round of Talks
Witkoff announced the change himself after the Kremlin meeting, telling Russian state television that the Europeans would join the next meeting, which he called a very important moment because they were partners of the United States and it mattered that they take part. Kushner went further after the Dublin meeting, posting on X that both sides had agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include the European partners, and saying that the deal could not be concluded without Europeans at the table. He added that some really incredible post-war security plans for Ukraine were being worked on, a hint that the talks are now reaching beyond a ceasefire to the question of what guarantees Ukraine after the fighting stops.
Zelensky welcomed the news. Speaking to reporters in Dublin after the meeting, he said he was pleased at the prospect of further sets of talks and European participation in them, and that the talks over the past days had been very important. He said the meetings gave hope that the war would end, that after this meeting there would be another meeting, and that each meeting had to give a result and bring the sides closer to peace. The Ukrainian leader had argued for months that Europe should be at the main negotiating table, and the American announcement, if it holds, delivers that demand.
The Prisoner Swap: The One Deal Already Agreed
The clearest outcome of the week is the prisoner exchange agreed in Abu Dhabi. Kushner told reporters the two sides had agreed to what he called the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners of the war, with final numbers to be settled on Thursday. Zelensky, speaking alongside Witkoff and Kushner on Thursday night, said the recently agreed prisoner of war exchange would be the biggest since the start of the war, calling the swap a real result. Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia, part of the process since 2022, agreed the exchange could be the largest since the fighting began, and Zelensky, writing on Telegram, called it an important humanitarian agreement.
A Russian military official gave the first indication of the scale. General Staff official Alexander Zorin said the exchange would involve more than 1,000 people on each side and could take place within two to three weeks, according to the Interfax news service. If that timetable holds, it would be a major release by the standards of this war. The numbers are not final, and that is part of what the Moscow and Dublin meetings were for. American and Ukrainian officials said the exact figure would be set during Thursday’s meetings, and until both leaders have signed off, the exchange remains an agreement in principle rather than a done deal.
Putin’s Hardline Stance and Moscow’s Doubts
The promise of a European seat came with a warning from Moscow that the negotiations will be difficult, and with a notable gap between what the Americans announced and what the Kremlin confirmed. Putin told the envoys that Russia had never objected to pursuing dialogue with Europe, and he said he wanted a peace that was durable and lasting, adding that he wanted it to be eternal, for good. But he also said Washington must work with its European allies to understand if they want peace or war in Ukraine, and reports of the meeting said he indicated Moscow would not compromise on its hardline demands to end a war that is now almost five years old. Russian forces hold about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, and Kyiv insists that any settlement must begin with a ceasefire and include security guarantees strong enough to prevent another Russian attack.
Putin also warned that the war would resume immediately if European countries deployed troops to Ukraine to enforce a future peace agreement, and he has previously said foreign troops deployed in Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets by Moscow. In the Kremlin, he proposed a joint Russian-Ukrainian humanitarian mission to Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine, a small gesture in a meeting otherwise defined by hard positions. His foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, did not confirm that the Europeans would join the next round of peace talks, and he said their current stance amounted to a recipe for endless war. Ushakov said the Europeans were making every effort to get involved in the negotiations, but that, as Putin had said, they needed to decide whether they wanted peace or a continuation of the war, and that so far all their practical actions pointed to the latter. He did confirm, however, that trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States would continue.
The gap matters because Moscow has consistently resisted a multilateral format, preferring to deal with Washington alone. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticised the presence of European officials in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, saying their involvement was not a promising approach, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no contacts had been planned or had taken place between the Russian team and European representatives there. Russia has previously demanded that Europe designate a single representative to speak on behalf of the continent. Washington is pushing in the opposite direction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Paris at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven on Tuesday, said the administration’s goal was to expand future talks so that Europeans are represented at that table directly, and Zelensky has made the same demand at every stage.
Starshield Disruptions and the War on the Ground
The diplomacy is taking place against a war that has not paused for it. Zelensky warned on Thursday of recurring disruptions to Starshield, a military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink service that is critical to Ukraine’s military operations. He said the service had faced significant disruptions in recent days, hampering Kyiv’s ability to shoot down Russian drones, and he described the problems as systematic speed restrictions rather than random errors. He said the restrictions were primarily a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones, and he wrote on X that the disruption was helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine. Kyiv was trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side, he said.
SpaceX, the company which owns Starshield, told CNN that there had been no change in its service, and CNN said it had reached out to the White House and the Pentagon. In October too, Ukraine said speed limits were imposed on Starshield satellite terminals, as the relationship between Kyiv and Washington deteriorated. Trump denied approving that decision, while Musk said the Trump administration was behind the restrictions. The dispute adds a practical strain to the diplomacy: Ukraine depends on the service to defend its cities, and any interruption, whatever its cause, is felt within hours on the battlefield.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, the latest push for peace has not afforded Ukraine respite from the daily barrage of Russian attacks. Moscow launched a ballistic missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Thursday, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. In Kyiv, at least one person was killed, and several others injured amid a Russian drone attack on Thursday morning, local authorities said.
What Happens Next: APEC, Security Guarantees and the Hard Questions
The next steps are already taking shape. Ushakov said Putin and Trump will continue discussions about Ukraine during a planned bilateral meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, and he said Trump was personally focused on resolving the issue. The summit, where leaders from 21 economies gather on November 18 and 19, is now the next fixed point in the diplomacy, and the question is whether the meeting between the two presidents produces anything more concrete than the shuttle has so far. Trump has repeatedly sought a negotiated end to the war since returning to the White House, and the envoys’ schedule, Abu Dhabi to Moscow to Dublin in three days, is a peace process run by personal envoys: Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, acts as one of the country’s top diplomats despite holding no official role in the administration, and Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, has become the administration’s point man on Ukraine.
The hard questions have not moved. The war is now in its fifth year, and the gap between the sides remains wide. Kyiv insists that any settlement must begin with a ceasefire and include security guarantees strong enough to prevent another Russian attack. Moscow has resisted a ceasefire first, preferring to negotiate a broad European security framework before settling the specifics of the war. American officials have used the talks to press Moscow to present fresh proposals addressing its security concerns, and to outline the reciprocal steps it would take to reduce tensions with European countries. Washington has also made clear to European governments that it will not enter into a security agreement with Russia unless Europe and Ukraine are on board, and that Moscow will not be given a veto over Europe’s security choices. A source familiar with the discussions said Zelensky would not agree to a deal until he knew what happens next regarding security guarantees, and Putin wanted to know this too, which is why the framework proposal matters: it is the first time the Americans have tried to answer the guarantees question and the European security question in the same negotiation.
For now, the process is alive, and that is more than could be said for most of the past nine months. The prisoner swap gives it a result. The promise of a European seat gives it a direction. The Moscow meeting will show whether Putin is prepared to engage with either, and the Dublin meeting showed that Zelensky is willing to keep talking. If the Europeans do join the next round, the negotiation will change shape: it will no longer be a conversation between Washington and Moscow about Ukraine, but a negotiation about the security of a whole continent. If Moscow’s doubts harden into a refusal, the shuttle will have produced a humanitarian agreement and little else, and the war will go on.
Source: The Washington Post and CNN