U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday, carrying the results of two days of U.S.-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi.
The Abu Dhabi talks, the first direct discussions between Russian and Ukrainian officials in nine months, ended on Wednesday with agreement on a large exchange of prisoners, though the exact number of people involved has yet to be finalised. The talks produced no visible breakthrough on ending the war, which is approaching its fifth year.
Kushner said one of the goals of the Kremlin meeting was to secure Putin's blessing for European representatives to take part in the negotiations, which are also looking at the continent's broader security arrangements. Washington and Kyiv want European countries to nominate a single representative to negotiate with Moscow, but Russia has resisted direct European participation in the talks.
Putin reaffirmed to the envoys Moscow's rejection of any European troop presence in Ukraine, saying Russia sees such a deployment as a security threat and warning that European troops would be legitimate targets.
After the Kremlin meeting, Kushner said he and Witkoff would fly to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is attending the European Political Community summit there, so the Ukrainian leader can hear the Russian response to the Abu Dhabi discussions.
