Europe to join next Ukraine talks, Kushner says

Jared Kushner said Ukraine and Russia agreed to add European countries to the next peace talks late Thursday, The Guardian reported on Nov. 13, day 1,724 of the war.

The format would widen the channel beyond Kyiv and Moscow to include Europe on postwar security, while Kushner said US officials were pursuing what could be the war’s largest prisoner exchange, involving thousands of people.

“This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner said on X after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Steve Witkoff, another US envoy, told Russian state TV after the Kremlin meeting that European participation was expected at the next round. “The Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment because they are our partners and it’s important to us that they take part,” he said.

Kushner and Witkoff later travelled to Ireland for a European summit and met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said he welcomed the prospect of European countries joining the talks and wanted the agenda to include measures toward a ceasefire and de-escalation.

“We decided that we will work on an agenda about any kind of de-escalation, some kind of ceasefires,” Zelenskyy said after meeting the US envoys. “I hope that we will have such agenda,” he said.

The diplomatic opening remains constrained by Moscow’s position. Putin warned European governments not to deploy peacekeeping troops to Ukraine under any settlement, saying such a step would be a “continuation of war,” and refused to ease Russia’s territorial demands, according to The Guardian.

Putin said Moscow had not rejected dialogue with Europe but accused European countries of cutting off contacts with Russia. He urged Washington to work with its allies so they “can finally make up their minds as to what they want: peace or war in Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy also raised concern about new restrictions affecting Starshield, the US-made satellite communications system used by Kyiv’s forces. He said earlier Thursday that disruptions had affected the entire frontline and Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, and described Washington’s approach to discussing a new European security order with Russia as “a bit strange.” SpaceX declined to comment.

The fighting continued as the talks unfolded. Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram late Thursday that a Russian drone strike killed two people in northern Ukraine, while a local Ukrainian official said early Friday that five people were injured when a Russian drone hit an apartment building in Rivne.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, local officials said on Telegram Thursday that one man was killed and four people were injured in a drone attack. Ukrainian agricultural company Kernel Holding said Thursday it had suspended operations at all its oilseed extraction plants after a series of Russian attacks on its facilities.

Source: News report, The Guardian, Nov. 13.