Kiev and the US agreed that European countries should participate in the peace negotiations for the conflict in Ukraine, according to President Zelensky and the American emissaries.
© Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images
13/11/2026
by
Lusa
Anegotiations on a peace agreement for the conflict initiated with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia should now involve European countries, Kyiv and US mediators agreed today.
The European countries will be present at the “next meeting” of the “negotiations” to end the war, Zelensky said tonight, after meeting in Dublin with US emissaries just arrived from Moscow.
According to the Ukrainian President, “the American side has made progress so that Europeans at the next meeting can join the negotiating team” — not in the margins, “not separately”.
This presence is fundamental, given that Ukraine will “be a member of the EU in the future”, he stressed.
At his side, Jared Kushner — one of the two emissaries of the American President, Donald Trump – agreed that “this agreement cannot be concluded” between Moscow and Kiev “without Europeans at the negotiating table.”.
Kushner stressed the “close work” carried out with Europeans in recent months in relation to Ukraine, and valued the fact that they could become more actively involved in contacts.
“I believe we are in a position to agree with President Putin,” he added to the press before the meeting with Zelensky on the margins of the European Political Community (CPE) summit that Dublin hosted today.
As regards the issues to be addressed with regard to the end of the war, Kushner stressed, inter alia, the security guarantees needed to ensure that what happened in Ukraine “do not repeat itself”.
Kushner stopped at an Irish air base along with the other special envoy, Steve Witkoff, after both met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The United States and Zelensky want Europe to appoint a single person to negotiate with Moscow, but Russia does not want Europeans to be involved in direct negotiations.
Moscow argues that Europe finances and supplies arms to Ukraine, while Europeans are concerned about Russia's broader conduct and intentions on the continent.
Prior to the visit to Russia, Witkoff and Kushner participated in the direct two-day negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Abu Dhabi under mediation from the United States.
The participation of European representatives in the Dublin meeting comes at a time when the countries of the old continent seek to secure a role in the negotiations on the future of Ukraine and European security.
The debate between the Kiev European allies also focuses on defining who should represent the European position in any future negotiations with Moscow.
Zelensky stated on Wednesday, on arrival in Dublin, that there could be a “window of opportunity” for a ceasefire before 2027.
The President of Russia today remained adamant in the maximistic demands to end the war in Ukraine during a meeting of more than two hours in Moscow with emissaries Witkoff and Kushner.
Putin reiterated to the US envoys Russia's demands on the territories whose annexation he claims, according to the French agency AFP.
He also reaffirmed that any mobilization of foreign troops in Ukraine would mean “the continuation of the war.”.
In a long exchange of words with Trump’s envoys broadcast on Russian television – something rare, according to AFP – Putin rejected any possibility of establishing “grey zones” or demilitarized around the front line.
Russia currently occupies just over 19% of Ukraine's territory and has claimed since 2022 the annexation, rejected by Kiev and the international community, of four Ukrainian regions that it does not fully control: Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporijia and Kherson.
Putin qualified as “absolutely unacceptable” the possibility of mobilizing foreign troops in Ukraine, requested by Kiev as a security guarantee against the resumption of the conflict.
“ Do Europeans know this and what we hear? That after the conclusion of peace, they will immediately send troops to Ukrainian territory,” he said.
Putin also proposed the organisation of a humanitarian operation in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, at the centre of the fighting in the Donetsk region (east).
“Let’s do something similar to what we did” in Oleshky, he suggested, quoting the Ukrainian city under Russian control in the Kherson region where a humanitarian operation supported by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, recently took place.
During the direct discussions in Abu Dhabi, the first in more than eight months, Russians and Ukrainians agreed to a new exchange of prisoners, whose number was not disclosed.
In parallel, Russia continued the attacks against Ukraine, making one dead in Kiev overnight.
In St. Petersburg, northwestern Russia, a Russian military officer died today in the explosion of a vehicle whose origin remains undetermined
The Russian offensive in Ukraine, launched in February 2022, devastated the country and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides, becoming the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II (1939–1945).