OMM Newsroom
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed a pledge by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to include European Union delegates in the next round of peace talks with Russia, according to the BBC.
Zelensky said their participation would ensure the EU had a “voice” in the negotiations. He has called for European delegates to be included for several years, saying it makes sense in light of Kyiv’s long-term ambition to join the bloc.
Kushner and Witkoff met Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday evening, following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier that day. Putin said Russia’s position on the war, including its demand for territory, had not changed.
The meetings followed talks in Abu Dhabi last week that failed to produce a breakthrough in efforts to end the war.
US envoys discuss European participation
Kushner said the United States had been working “very, very closely” with Europeans over the past several months and that this had been important.
He said he had stressed to Putin the importance of having European delegates “at the table”. Putin was “willing to give it a try”, Kushner added.
European leaders have voiced growing security concerns this week. Ukraine and European countries have long expressed concern about the US government’s commitment to European security and what they see as its softening stance towards the Kremlin.
Moscow has dismissed European involvement, while European leaders have argued that they are central to decisions about the continent’s post-war future.
Earlier on Thursday, European Commission Vice-President and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the BBC’s Newshour that the presence of a European delegate showed the Kremlin “now realised that Europe is a big player”. She also voiced doubts that Russia was moving towards a peace agreement.
Russia and Ukraine agree prisoner exchange
Russia and Ukraine also agreed on Thursday to another prisoner exchange, described as the largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Kushner said the exchange would return “thousands of people to their families”. The sides did not give details on the number of prisoners involved or a timeline.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin told European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday that he believed Russia’s war had “fundamentally reshaped” the region’s security.
“Many member states [of the EU] feel an existential threat because of what has happened in Ukraine and the potential, if Ukraine was to fall, for further aggression on the European continent,” he told reporters.
About one-fifth of Ukraine remains under Russian control, and cross-border incursions are becoming more frequent.
Tensions between the United States and Ukraine were also evident on Thursday before Witkoff and Kushner met Zelensky. Earlier, Zelensky said the military was facing more “systematic” restrictions to the military-grade satellite service “Starshield”, making it harder for Kyiv to intercept Russian jet-powered drones.
The technology, owned by Elon Musk’s “SpaceX”, has played a vital role in government and military connectivity in Ukraine and increasingly supports communications on the front line.
