Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Europe would take a direct part in the next round of US-brokered talks with Russia, after Washington secured what he called the largest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky spoke on November 12 at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, on the outskirts of Dublin, after a meeting of almost an hour with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The pair had flown in from Moscow, where they met Russian President Vladimir Putin following two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the first in that format since February.
The Ukrainian leader had spent the day at the European Political Community summit in the Irish capital. He told reporters that unblocking the three-way negotiations gave hope that the war could be brought to an end.
He described the agreed prisoner swap as “a real result” for Ukrainian families. Kyiv still wants an all-for-all exchange, and neither side has said how many prisoners would be freed or when and where the swap would take place.
Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said the envoys had told Putin that a settlement could not be reached without Europe. “We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” he said, adding that the Russian leader was willing to try.
Zelensky said Europeans would sit in on the negotiations themselves at the next round, expected in Abu Dhabi the following week, rather than being consulted separately. He argued that Europe’s place was justified because the war was being fought on the continent and Ukraine expected to join the European Union.
Moscow had insisted the Abu Dhabi talks remain strictly trilateral. According to the BBC, Putin told the envoys that Russia’s position on the war, including its territorial demands, had not changed.
Kushner said security and territorial questions would be negotiated in parallel. Apart from humanitarian measures, nothing would be finalised until there was an overall agreement, he said.
He added that Washington was working with Kyiv and General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, on a reconstruction plan and post-war security guarantees. No wider European security arrangement would be concluded without taking Ukraine’s concerns into account, he said.
Witkoff said Trump was “intent on leading the charge to end this war”. Kushner acknowledged that substantial differences between the two sides remained.
Who would speak for Europe at the table remains unsettled. EU leaders meet informally in Dublin today, with the possible appointment of an EU envoy for the talks expected to be discussed after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni complained that Europe’s diplomatic efforts on the war were in disarray.
