Ukraine war briefing: Europe to join negotiations, says Kushner, as Putin warns against peace keepers

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to expand the next round of peace negotiations to include European countries, Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner said late on Thursday, after meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin. “This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner ​said ​later on X. “We are also working toward ‌what would be the largest prisoner ​exchange of the war, potentially reuniting thousands of people ⁠with their families.”

After the Moscow meeting, Kushner and Witkoff flew ⁠to Ireland to attend a European summit and meet Zelenskyy, who said he was pleased at the prospect of European participation in talks and said he hoped the agenda would include steps towards a ceasefire and de-escalating the conflict. “We decided that we will work on an agenda about any kind of de-escalation, some kind of ceasefires,” Zelenskyy said after meeting the US envoys. “I hope that we will have such agenda,” he said.

Putin warned Europe not to send peacekeeping troops into Ukraine in the event of a peace deal saying it was a “continuation of war”. Putin also refused to soften his territorial demands and said Washington must work with its European allies to understand if they want peace or war in Ukraine.

Putin’s comments underlined how ⁠difficult the negotiations could become, given sharp differences between Moscow ​and European capitals over the way the war should end. “The Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment because they are our partners and it’s important to us that they take part,” Witkoff told Russian state TV after meeting Putin in the Kremlin.

Kushner told Putin Washington had detected what he called “a big change” on the European side and was confident that expanding peace talks to include the Europeans would not hinder progress. Putin said Moscow had always been open to talking to the EU about Ukraine, but ​signalled serious outstanding differences. “As far as the Europeans are concerned, we have never been opposed to engaging in dialogue ‌with Europe, and we have never broken off that dialogue. It was ‌they who broke off the dialogue with the Russian Federation,” he said. “We would very much like you, gentlemen, and the US administration as a whole, to work with your European allies so that they can finally make up their minds as to what they want: peace or war in Ukraine,” said Putin.

However, Zelenskyy said new restrictions were affecting the US-made satellite communications Kyiv uses on the battlefield, and that he found the US approach of discussing a new European security order with Russia “a bit strange”. Earlier on Thursday, he said disruptions to the Starshield satellite ​communications service had affected the entire frontline and Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine. Starshield is the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications service, and Ukraine suffered similar disruptions last month. “So far we know very little (on the Starshield restrictions). But some things are already clear: if someone in America is making decisions that basically treat Ukrainian territory as if it is not Ukrainian, then it tells us where things are going,” he said. SpaceX declined to comment.

During the talks, the conflict between the two countries continued. A Russian drone ⁠strike killed two people in the ⁠northern ⁠Ukrainian ​region of Sumy, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said ⁠on Telegram late on Thursday, while in Rivne ⁠in the north-west, ​five ‌people were injured ‌after a Russian drone hit ‌an apartment building, a local Ukrainian official said on Telegram early on Friday. In Russia’s ‌Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, a man ​was killed and another four injured in a drone attack, ⁠local officials said on Telegram ​on ​Thursday. Meanwhile, Ukrainian agricultural company Kernel Holding said on ⁠Thursday it had suspended operations at all its oilseed extraction plants ⁠following a ⁠series ​of Russian attacks on its facilities.