U.S. Envoys Meet Putin Before Traveling to Dublin for Ukraine Peace Talks

U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoys met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday. The meeting took place as Washington sought to generate new momentum in peace efforts following two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also the president’s son-in-law, brokered the recent talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Those discussions marked the first direct talks between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv in nine months. While the two-day session that concluded on Wednesday did not produce a major breakthrough, the sides agreed to swap a large number of prisoners, with the exact figure yet to be announced.

Following their discussions with Putin, Kushner and Witkoff are scheduled to fly to Dublin, Ireland, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This sequence of meetings comes as Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its five-year mark.

Kushner stated that a primary objective of the Kremlin meeting was to secure Putin’s approval for European representatives to join the negotiations. These talks aim to address the continent’s broader security arrangements. The United States and Ukraine prefer that Europe appoint a single negotiator to deal with Moscow, but the Kremlin has resisted European involvement in direct talks, complaining that European nations are financing and supplying Ukraine’s war effort.

Putin reaffirmed Moscow’s rejection of any European troop presence in Ukraine in a post-war scenario. He described such forces as a security threat and warned that they would be legitimate targets. The Russian leader also indicated that Russia views its border with Ukraine as the line of control, a reference to the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed in 2022 but has not fully captured.

In Dublin, Zelenskyy is attending a meeting of more than 40 European countries, which also includes NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Rutte stated that the U.S., Europe, and Ukraine are closely aligned on the structure of security guarantees following a January meeting in Paris. However, he emphasized the urgent need for a peace deal or at least a ceasefire.

Zelenskyy described the proposed prisoner exchange as a positive step but insisted that Ukraine will not surrender Russian-occupied territory in exchange for peace. While both sides have occasionally swapped prisoners in the past, they remain far apart on the terms for a final settlement.

Amid these diplomatic efforts, fighting continues along the 1,200-kilometer front line. Russia’s larger army has been held back by Ukrainian resistance, while Moscow’s drone and missile strikes aim to disrupt civilian infrastructure, a strategy Kyiv calls the weaponization of winter.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy also reported another disruption in the U.S. Starshield system, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet. He said military units experienced significant speed restrictions, limiting drones to 161 kilometers per hour. A military investigation found these restrictions were not random errors. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that the service had been throttled for about a week, citing offensive strike capabilities as a reason.

The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia launched missiles and 123 drones overnight, including 73 jet-powered drones. Hits were recorded at 17 locations. Russia’s Defence Ministry stated that its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones and struck a drone-making plant in Kyiv along with three other facilities producing missile fuel and drone components.