By Lena Marchetti
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s envoys spent Thursday shuttling between the two sides of the war in Ukraine. They left with a new round of talks on the calendar, a promise of the largest prisoner swap of the war, and an agreement to bring Europe into the room.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Nov. 12. That evening they briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Casement Aerodrome, a military base west of Dublin, where he was attending the European Political Community summit, the Kyiv Independent reported.
“I think progress was made,” Witkoff told CNN at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport before leaving. “I think it was made earlier today. People didn’t think that we were going to restart trilateral. We’ve restarted it. We’ve set a new meeting.” He added: “This is what President Trump wants to see.”
What came out of Dublin
Standing with both envoys after the meeting, Zelensky said Europe would have a seat in the next round of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
“Next time, next meeting, Europe…will be in the negotiating team,” he said, according to the Kyiv Independent. He made clear that Europeans would take part directly, not in separate talks. “They will have a voice. This is important to us, because the war is in Europe.”
He also announced a prisoner exchange. “It will be the biggest, Steve and Jared told me, the biggest exchange of war prisoners yet,” Zelensky said. He called the swap “a real result,” CNN reported.
“It gives (us) hope that we will end this war, that after this meeting will be another meeting and each meeting has to give a result and bring us closer to this,” Zelensky said.
Kushner called the Dublin meeting “a very good discussion” and the Moscow talks “very detailed and productive.” Kushner said Putin had agreed to let Europe take part. “(H)e’s willing to give it a try,” he said. He later wrote on X that the sides had “agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners.”
Neither side gave a date or place for the next round, or said who would represent Europe. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s lead negotiator and foreign intelligence chief, was at the Dublin meeting, according to published photos cited by the Kyiv Independent.
What Moscow said
The visits followed two days of U.S.-brokered talks among Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators in Abu Dhabi. CNN reported those were the first such talks since February, and they ended Nov. 11 without a breakthrough.
In Moscow, Putin said Russia had “never objected (to) pursuing dialogue” with Europe. “You want this peace to be a durable and lasting one, and I confirm that I subscribe to that, and I’d say more. I want this peace to be eternal, for good,” he said, according to CNN.
Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov was cooler about a European role. “They are making every effort to get involved in the negotiations, but, as our president has said, they need to decide whether they want peace or a continuation of the war. So far, all their practical actions point precisely to the latter,” he said. Ushakov said Russia had made clear to the envoys that NATO could not expand further. The Kremlin also said the talks were useful and that the Americans had backed Putin’s proposal for a joint humanitarian mission to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, Reuters reported, as cited by The Guardian.
Ushakov also said the talks will move up a level. “It was noted that President Donald Trump is personally focused on resolving this issue,” he said. “Naturally, during the planned meeting with him at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, the discussion of the full range of issues related to the settlement will continue.”
The Guardian’s analysis found Putin’s substantive positions unchanged. He again demanded to keep Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and opposed foreign peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. Those troops are a key part of the security guarantees Europe has planned for Kyiv.
A dispute over Starshield
The diplomacy came as Zelensky complained that Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service, had again slowed for Ukrainian forces.
“These are not random errors but systematic speed restrictions. For us, this primarily means a significant complication in intercepting Russian jet-powered drones,” Zelensky said. “Unfortunately, this is helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
SpaceX told CNN there had been no change in its service. CNN said it had contacted the White House and the Pentagon. Zelensky said Kyiv was “trying to establish all the circumstances with the American side.”
Russia kept up its strikes during the talks. Moscow launched a ballistic missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Thursday, Ukraine’s air force said. At least one person was killed in a drone attack on Kyiv, local authorities said.
What to watch
There are three things to watch next. The first is the date, place and European lineup for the next trilateral round. The second is the prisoner exchange, which both sides have now described as the largest of the war. The third is the Trump-Putin meeting Ushakov says is planned at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen later this month.
Zelensky also said the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries planning postwar security guarantees for Ukraine, would meet in Berlin next week.
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