US to seek Putin’s ‘blessing’ for Europe to join Ukraine talks

ABU DHABI — U.S. officials will head to Moscow in person Thursday to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to give his “blessing” to allow European representatives to join future peace talks for Ukraine.

Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who has been mediating talks in Abu Dhabi, told reporters he and White House envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Moscow to meet the Russian leader. 

They aim to secure Putin’s approval for Europe to get a seat at the table and to sign off on what would be the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the war. Kushner said European participation is critical for discussions over revising the future security architecture of Europe — a longstanding Russian demand, and an initiative that has alarmed some European officials. 

“We need to have the Europeans at the table,” Kushner told POLITICO. “We have relayed to President Putin directly several times and to his team that the only way to get this done is to have them by our side and I think they are receptive to it.

“I believe that hopefully tomorrow in Moscow, Steve and I will be successful and President Putin will give the blessing for that to occur. I think that if he agrees to that we will be able to make a lot more progress on the issues that matter.” 

The talks in Abu Dhabi were the first between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. since February. Ukraine and its allies in Europe had played down expectations of a breakthrough at the talks, and no progress was announced on critical issues such as ceasefires covering energy infrastructure, Black Sea shipping or territory. 

But the fact the sides were meeting again after nine months without any discussions was seen in European capitals as an important step. 

In a move designed to build confidence between the warring nations, Kushner announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to what is likely to be “the biggest” exchange of prisoners since the start of the war. The numbers will be confirmed Thursday, he added. Russian state-controlled news agency Tass confirmed that a “large-scale” prisoner exchange had been agreed. 

Kushner said that, overall, the two-day talks were “substantive” and “pretty tough” but “a good first step” to get the two sides talking again after a nine-month break. 

He said that when U.S. officials met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oslo three weeks ago, it was not clear that Moscow and Kyiv would be able to resume negotiations. 

“It’s been a long way to get everyone back to the table,” Kushner said. “But I think this was a very good first meeting. It was a tough meeting, but a productive one.” He said all relevant issues were discussed between the two sides and that the question of territory “will be the hardest” to resolve. 

The Ukrainian negotiators blamed “very strict directives” from the Kremlin for limiting their room to negotiate in Abu Dhabi, making it impossible to achieve more progress in the talks. 

Kushner and Witkoff will aim to persuade Putin to unlock progress on some issues when they meet him Thursday and, according to officials who took part in the talks, to agree on the date of the next round of negotiations. They will then travel to meet Zelenskyy and potentially European leaders in Dublin later. 

Ukraine wants an agreement on a ceasefire by the New Year, as it fears Russia is preparing another winter of bombardments and targeting energy networks to freeze the country into submission. 

One critical question, especially for Europe, is how far the talks about changing the continental security framework underpinned by NATO will be tied to the specific negotiations over peace in Ukraine.

Europeans have long campaigned for Ukraine to get the strongest possible security guarantees to prevent Russia attacking again when this war ends. U.S. officials want to explore the idea of providing a NATO-like collective defense agreement with Ukraine, which could even see the alliance itself act as a guarantor. 

But Russia is insisting on widening the talks to include a review of the whole security architecture for Europe — something the U.S. mediators have agreed to.

European officials say the sequencing of these talks will be critical. The European side has signaled its willingness to explore overhauling the continent’s wider security system to allay Russia’s concerns — in parallel with the Ukraine peace process. But they do not want to sign up to any broader reforms until peace has been achieved. 

Kushner said the aim was to discuss all the issues and then “find a pathway to settle them all at the same time.” 

“I think that having these discussions is very important,” he said. “But the implementation of postwar security will not occur until there’s an agreement on territory and on all other bilateral issues.”

The U.S. desire to have Europe join the negotiations throws the spotlight back on the European Union and others such as the United Kingdom to decide who will represent them in talks. EU leaders will consider this now urgent question in Dublin at an informal summit Friday.

Zelenskyy has said he wants to be consulted over who gets to represent Europe, but has urged his allies to hurry up and ideally pick one person to take the lead in future talks.

Kushner said the current arrangement, which includes NATO, the EU institutions, and representatives from France, Germany, the U.K. and Italy, was “a really strong way to organize,” adding, “If Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”