Zelensky Welcomes US Push to Bring Europe into Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks

On Thursday evening in Dublin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sat down with two American envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, at the end of a day that had begun in Moscow. The pair had already met Vladimir Putin. By the time they reached Zelensky, they carried a pledge he had been seeking for years: delegates from the European Union would be included in the next round of peace talks with Russia.

Zelensky welcomed the commitment, saying it would give the EU a "voice" in the negotiations. He has argued for European participation for several years, and his reasoning is straightforward: Ukraine hopes eventually to join the European Union, so it makes sense for European leaders to be involved in deciding the terms of the peace.

Kushner said the US had been working "very, very closely" with Europeans over the past several months, and called that cooperation very important. He said he had stressed to Putin how important it was to have European delegates "at the table", and that Putin was "willing to give it a try." That is Kushner's account of the Moscow meeting. The reporting does not say what the Kremlin itself has committed to on this point. Putin did tell the envoys that Russia's position on the war, including its demand for territory, has not changed.

The diplomacy follows talks in Abu Dhabi last week that produced no breakthrough. Thursday did bring one concrete result: Russia and Ukraine agreed to another prisoner exchange, the largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Kushner said it would return "thousands of people to their families", but no figure for the number of prisoners and no timeline were given.

The European question carries weight because of a long-running unease. Ukraine and its European neighbours have worried about the current US government's commitment to European security and what they see as its softening toward the Kremlin. Moscow has been dismissive of European involvement, while Europeans have long argued they are central to any post-war arrangement on their own continent. Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat and a vice president of the European Commission, told the BBC's Newshour earlier on Thursday that a European delegate at the table would show the Kremlin has "now realised that Europe is a big player." She also doubted there was any Russian momentum toward a peace deal.

The mood among European leaders was sober. Many were gathered in the Irish capital, where Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the region's security has been "fundamentally reshaped" by Russia's war. Many EU member states, he told reporters, feel an existential threat because of what has happened in Ukraine and the potential, if Ukraine were to fall, for further aggression elsewhere on the continent. Roughly one-fifth of Ukraine remains under Russian control, and cross-border incursions are increasingly common.

Friction between Washington and Kyiv was also visible before the envoys met Zelensky. He said the Ukrainian military was facing more "systematic" restrictions on Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink satellite service, leaving Kyiv struggling to intercept Russian jet-powered drones. The technology, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, has been vital to government and military connectivity in Ukraine and increasingly supports communication on the front line.

What to watch now is whether European seats actually materialise at the next round, and whether Moscow, which has stood by its territorial demands, accepts them when the time comes.