Moscow: US President Donald Trump's envoys met Thursday with President Vladimir Putin as Washington sought new momentum in peace efforts after two days of US-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law, brokered the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Those were the first direct discussions between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv in nine months as the push for peace stalled.
The two days of talks that ended Wednesday produced no major breakthrough, aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, with the exact figure still to be announced.
Kushner and Witkoff went straight to the Kremlin to brief Putin in a meeting that lasted about two hours and are scheduled to fly to Dublin, Ireland, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the conflict stretches towards the five-year mark.
Kushner said that one of the goals of the meeting with Putin was to get the Russian leader's blessing for European representatives to be part of the talks, which are looking at the continent's broader security arrangements.
The US and Zelenskyy want Europe to appoint a single person to negotiate with Moscow.
But Moscow does not want European countries involved in the direct negotiations, complaining that they are financing and supplying Ukraine's military effort. The Europeans are concerned about Russia's conduct and broader intentions on the continent.
Many in Europe see the inclusion of Moscow in discussions about postwar European security as an unwelcome concession to Putin, who has described NATO's eastward expansion as a main security threat to Russia. Putin has demanded the trans-Atlantic alliance's troops be pulled back from Russia's borders.
Some analysts say negotiators may be looking to grant Russia concessions on NATO's strategy in return for peace in Ukraine – a possibility that alarms European leaders.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi “agreed on many of the principles, but are still apart on some of the ways to accomplish” peace, Kushner said in Moscow.
Putin reaffirmed to the US envoys that any European troops sent to Ukraine after a ceasefire would be “absolutely unacceptable” and Russia would regard the deployment as a security threat and legitimate targets. “In other words, the war would resume immediately,” he said.
He also said Russia regards its border with Ukraine to be sealed by a prospective peace deal as now extending to cover the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed in 2022 but never fully controlled.
Zelenskyy is in Dublin for a meeting of more than 40 European countries that also includes NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Rutte said the US, Europe and Ukraine are “very much aligned” on what security guarantees should look like, following a meeting in Paris in January. “But now of course we need the peace deal, or at least a ceasefire,” Rutte said.
Zelenskyy said political changes, including Democrats taking over the US Congress in January following midterm elections and voting in France next year, could bring “a window of opportunity” for a peace deal.
“The political landscape in Europe could change in 2027… We also see changes already taking place in the United States,” Zelenskyy said in Dublin late Wednesday.
He called the proposed prisoner exchange a positive step but also insisted Ukraine won't surrender Russian-occupied territory in return for peace.
Russia and Ukraine have occasionally swapped prisoners, but both sides remain far apart in their terms for accepting a settlement.
Amid the negotiations, fighting continues along the 1,200-km front line.
Russia's bigger army has been held back by dogged Ukrainian resistance while Moscow's drone and missile strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities disrupted heat, electricity and water supplies to Ukrainian cities, sapping public morale in what Kyiv calls a “weaponisation of winter”.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight. Its forces struck a drone-manufacturing plant in Kyiv and three other facilities producing missile fuel and drone components in the area around the Ukrainian capital.
Russia launched missiles and 123 drones, 73 of them jet-powered drones, at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said. Hits were recorded at 17 locations, it said.
Ukraine is experiencing another slowdown in the US Starshield system – SpaceX's military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service – that the country needs to defend itself against Russian attacks, Zelenskyy said Thursday on social media.
Military units have recorded “significant disruptions,” including speed restrictions limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kph (100 mph), Zelenskyy said, adding that a military investigation established that the restrictions weren't random errors.
Ukraine uses Starlink and Starshield for intercepting Russian drones and launching its own strikes.
Last month, limits on Ukrainian drone speeds severely disrupted operations and alarmed Kyiv officials who fear US support could drop off.
Elon Musk acknowledged that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink internet service in Ukraine for about a week, saying the system could not be used for offensive strikes against Russia.
Zelenskyy said in Dublin that the speed limits cover operations in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and that Kyiv is trying to find out from US officials what is going on. “If someone in America is making decisions that basically treat Ukrainian territory as if it is not Ukrainian, then this tells us where things are going,” he said.
A Russian serviceman was killed in St Petersburg early Thursday when his vehicle exploded, according to Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's main criminal investigation agency. It did not identify the victim or say who was behind the bombing.
The Fontanka news outlet said the victim was a colonel and that a bomb exploded in his car as he drove off.
Several senior Russian military officers have been killed by bombings and other attacks that Moscow blames on Ukraine. Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some attacks on Russian soil.