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US envoys secured Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agreement to include European representatives in the next round of Ukraine peace talks, a development Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as important because the conflict is taking place in Europe. Steve Witkoff, one of the envoys, told Russian state television after the Kremlin meeting that the Europeans would join what he called a very important moment since they are partners. Zelensky, who met the envoys later in Dublin, voiced support for the move while stressing the need for an agenda that addresses de-escalation and ceasefires, according to a Reuters report on the discussions.
The Moscow meeting followed two days of US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi earlier in the week, the first direct negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials in nine months, Reuters reported. Those sessions produced some progress but left major differences on territorial issues unresolved, with Kyiv rejecting Moscow’s demands to cede all of Donbas. Zelensky expressed alarm over renewed restrictions affecting US-made satellite communications used by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield, the news agency added.
Zelensky said he hoped the next round would feature an agenda covering any kind of de-escalation and some kind of ceasefires. “This is important for us because the war is in Europe,” he stated in comments relayed by Reuters. The Ukrainian leader also welcomed what he saw as changes in the US approach and voiced optimism about achieving concrete results by the end of 2026, a timeline he tied to the current participants’ apparent desire for progress before 2027, according to a Guardian briefing on the talks.
The US envoys, Jared Kushner and Witkoff, had emphasized the importance of European involvement from the outset, with Kushner noting that the United States had worked closely with Europeans and could not conclude a deal without them at the table. A Russian delegation source told Reuters that Moscow viewed the main thrust of the talks as developing a postwar security framework for Europe, an idea that has met resistance from some European politicians who insist a ceasefire in Ukraine must come first. Zelensky told reporters that European participation would extend beyond security to include economic recovery and the country’s path toward European Union integration, the Kyiv Post reported.
The conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has lasted more than four and a half years. A joint BBC and Mediazona investigation with volunteers has confirmed the names of 285,023 Russian military deaths, with experts estimating the real toll could be between 518,000 and 633,000. An open-source Ukrainian losses project has identified 115,952 confirmed Ukrainian military deaths with a possible total as high as 234,573 when including missing personnel.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Abu Dhabi talks demonstrated that the United States, Ukraine and Europe remained completely aligned and united, according to the Guardian. He added that it was now up to Russia to show willingness to cooperate. No date has been set for the next round of negotiations, though officials indicated it would include the European partners directly rather than in separate briefings, Reuters reported from Dublin and Moscow.
