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Morning Edition · Friday, November 13, 2026Published at 12:14 AM EST · New York
US Envoys Say Europe Will Join the Next Round of Ukraine Talks After Meeting Putin in the Kremlin
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went from Moscow to Dublin to brief Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia has not formally confirmed that Europe will take part, and Vladimir Putin repeated his opposition to European troops.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and then flew to Dublin to brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was attending a European summit there. Reports differ on how long the Moscow meeting lasted. Reuters, as carried by The Hindu, said more than four hours. CNN said about two hours.
The main change concerns who sits at the table. Witkoff said Russia had effectively accepted European participation in the next round, but Moscow had not formally confirmed it, CNN reported. Zelensky said Europe "will be a negotiation team – not some way, not separately." Kushner told the Financial Times that the US cannot reach a deal without Europe, while European leaders rejected a Russian push to overhaul the continent's security arrangements.
Ukraine's account of the Abu Dhabi round that came before this one stresses the practical results. Zelensky listed the largest prisoner exchange, agreement to keep negotiating and the inclusion of European representatives, Ukrinform reported. Moscow's position has not changed. Putin again warned against European troops in Ukraine, and Ynetnews reported that he said the war would resume immediately under certain conditions.
The military pressure continued during the talks. The Financial Times reported that Kyiv says Starlink restrictions are back in force and that Ukraine's army is struggling to intercept Russian jet-powered drones. Al Jazeera described the envoys' trip as a shuttle between Moscow and Dublin. Washington is carrying the messages, and the two warring parties have no direct channel for setting terms.
Part of a tracked trend
Great Powers Negotiate Ukraine Over Europe's Head
Washington, Moscow and Beijing increasingly treat the end of the Ukraine war as a bargain among themselves, so European governments and Kyiv keep losing influence over the terms while being asked to fund the outcome.
Veracity: Plausible
68/100- If true, who benefits
If Europe joins the talks, Washington gains partners to pay for reconstruction and security guarantees and Kyiv gains allies in the negotiations, while Moscow loses its preferred format of three-way talks without European governments.
- The nuance
The European role rests on statements by Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, and by Zelensky. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, said on October 28 that Europeans would not take part, and Moscow has not reversed that position on the record. CNN reported that Kyiv's complaint concerned Starshield, the military version of Starlink.
An open-source-intelligence read of how likely this story is true with its real nuance, not a judgment of any outlet. It assesses the claim, weighing independent and adversarial reporting. How we label confidence.
What this means
Today's development partly contradicts the desk's thesis that the great powers are settling Ukraine over Europe's head. Europe now has a stated seat. Kushner's reasoning, though, is that a deal needs European money and security guarantees, not European authority over the terms. Each actor wants something different. Russia wants recognized territorial gains and no Western troops. Kyiv wants guarantees. Washington wants a deal that Europe pays for. Europe's leverage is its frozen Russian assets and its budgets for reconstruction and defense. A prisoner exchange and an agreement to keep talking are now expected. A formal Russian acceptance of a European delegation would be new. The consensus may overstate progress, because a seat at the table does not settle the dispute over European troops, which Putin keeps rejecting. The desk's read is that talks will likely keep moving forward on humanitarian items such as prisoner exchanges over the coming weeks without a ceasefire. That holds as long as the European troop question stays open and both sides keep their deep-strike campaigns. This read is wrong if Moscow formally accepts European negotiators and a monitoring arrangement that does not involve Western troops.
Synthesized from: The Hindu · Financial Times World · Ukrinform · Al Jazeera
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