By Harriet Morris
U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys met Thursday with President Vladimir Putin as Washington sought new momentum in peace efforts after two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, brokered the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Those were the first direct discussions between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv in nine months as the push for peace stalled.
The two days of talks that ended Wednesday produced no major breakthrough, aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, with the exact figure still to be announced.
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Kushner and Witkoff went straight to the Kremlin to brief Putin in a meeting that lasted about two hours, and they then headed for Dublin, Ireland, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the conflict stretches toward the five-year mark.
Kushner said one of the goals of the meeting with Putin was to get the Russian leader’s blessing for European representatives to be part of the talks, which are looking at the continent’s broader security arrangements.
The U.S. and Zelenskyy want Europe to appoint a single person to negotiate with Moscow.
Russia, meanwhile, doesn’t want European countries involved in the direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort. The Europeans are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent.
But Washington and European capitals have sometimes seemed to be at odds in their diplomatic efforts. Trump has repeatedly sided with Putin, last month waiving sanctions and striking a deal to import Russian diesel, in moves that dismayed Ukraine and European leaders.
Many in Europe also see the inclusion of Moscow in discussions about postwar European security as an unwelcome concession to Putin, who has described NATO’s eastward expansion as a main security threat to Russia. Putin has demanded the trans-Atlantic alliance’s troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders.
Some analysts say negotiators may be looking to grant Russia concessions on NATO’s strategy in return for peace in Ukraine — a possibility that alarms European leaders.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi “agreed on many of the principles, but are still apart on some of the way to accomplish” peace, Kushner said in Moscow.
Putin reaffirmed to the U.S. envoys that any European troops sent to Ukraine after a ceasefire would be “absolutely unacceptable” and Russia would regard the deployment as a security threat and legitimate targets. “In other words, the war would resume immediately,” he said.
He also said Russia regards its border with Ukraine to be sealed by a prospective peace deal as now extending to cover the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed in 2022 but never fully controlled.
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