President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Europe will take part in the next round of peace talks with Russia, after meeting US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Dublin on Thursday evening.
Zelenskyy met the two envoys at Casement Aerodrome, a military airfield at Baldonnel west of Dublin, hours after they held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Ukrainian president was in Ireland for a summit of European leaders.
“At the next meeting, Europe will be on the negotiating team… They will have a voice,” Zelenskyy told reporters after the meeting. “This is important for us, because the war is in Europe. We will be a member of the EU in the future.”
Kushner said a peace deal could not be concluded “without the Europeans being at the table”, and said “really incredible” post-war security plans for Ukraine were being worked on. Witkoff said he had told Putin that European representatives would join the next round of talks. Russian officials have not immediately confirmed the arrangement.
01. Biggest prisoner exchange yet
Zelenskyy also said the next prisoner exchange with Russia would be the largest of the war so far.
“It will be the biggest, Steve and Jared told me, the biggest exchange of war prisoners yet,” he said, calling the swap “a real result”. The two sides had already agreed the exchange during US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
In Moscow, Putin told the envoys that Europe needed to decide whether it wanted “peace or war”, and warned that foreign peacekeepers deployed to Ukraine would be targeted by Russian forces. The Kremlin talks also covered a humanitarian operation in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka and the prisoner exchange. Witkoff said after leaving Moscow that progress had been made and a new round of talks would be announced, though he gave no date or place.
02. Abu Dhabi talks ended without a breakthrough
The Abu Dhabi talks on 10 and 11 November — the first direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in nine months — ended without a breakthrough. Zelenskyy said Russian negotiators told Kyiv’s delegation they had no permission from the Kremlin to discuss stopping strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure or easing attacks on shipping in the Black Sea.
European leaders meeting in Dublin backed a draft declaration saying Ukraine’s path to peace must be decided with Ukraine, and European security with Europeans. About 40 countries were expected to support it. An informal meeting of EU leaders in Dublin on Friday will discuss who should represent Europe in the talks.
Zelenskyy also warned that Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink service that Ukraine’s forces rely on, had faced “significant disruptions” in recent days, hampering efforts to shoot down Russian drones. He said Kyiv was trying to establish what had happened with the American side.
Read more: Witkoff, Kushner Meet Putin in Moscow, Then Fly to Dublin to Brief Zelenskyy — and Abu Dhabi Talks End With Deal on Biggest Prisoner Exchange.
