Kushner and Witkoff to Meet Putin on Thursday After Abu Dhabi Talks on Ukraine
Key Facts
Jared Kushner said he and Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, before heading to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The visit follows the conclusion of U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, as Europe’s participation in direct negotiations remains disputed. The trip will take the U.S. envoys from a meeting with the Russian president to one with his Ukrainian counterpart, as part of diplomatic efforts to end the war. Coverage did not identify a stated objective for the Moscow meeting related to scheduling another round of negotiations. Nor did it announce a preliminary outcome for the meeting with Putin or indicate that Moscow had accepted direct European participation.
The Abu Dhabi talks lasted two days and ended on Wednesday, with Russian and Ukrainian delegations taking part under U.S. mediation. The Associated Press said Moscow does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, despite representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO being in Abu Dhabi for consultations with the Ukrainian delegation. Before the talks, Kushner and Witkoff were scheduled to meet in the UAE with officials from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, as well as NATO and EU officials. Those consultations focused on potential security guarantees and the long-term security framework between Russia and Europe. A U.S. official said before the Abu Dhabi talks that Washington strongly believes Europe should be at the negotiating table to end the war. That position puts the Moscow visit to a political test over the breadth of participation in the negotiating process.
The Abu Dhabi talks focused on humanitarian issues, Zelenskyy said, including a prisoner exchange and the return of detained Ukrainian civilians and children taken from the country. The two sides agreed to a major exchange of prisoners of war, Kushner said. He said the final figures for the exchange would be determined the following day, with no final tally included in the information available. The agreement was a concrete outcome of talks that went beyond political and security issues. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, had said the second day’s format would begin with a trilateral meeting involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine, followed by a separate session with European partners. The format points to a European presence in consultations alongside the continuing dispute over Europe’s participation in direct negotiations.
The talks showed no sign of a breakthrough at the outset, with Reuters reporting that the two sides entered them far apart on the terms of a settlement. Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said the sides had reached a common understanding on some points but had not agreed on others, and that discussions would continue. He added that a new European security framework was a key focus of the Abu Dhabi talks, and said Moscow had received no concrete European peace initiatives or proposals. Unresolved issues include future security guarantees and Moscow’s demand that Ukraine adopt neutrality and not join NATO. Russia also rejected a temporary ceasefire, Reuters reported, preferring a comprehensive agreement to end the war over a truce that could allow Ukraine to rearm. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said progress toward ending the war would take time.
Zelenskyy defended Europe’s involvement, saying Ukraine had always called for it to be at the negotiating table and that security guarantees and economic recovery could not be discussed without European representatives. Before the Abu Dhabi talks, he said his team would put forward steps to de-escalate and that a framework for a leaders’ trilateral meeting to end the war should be reached. Kyiv had expected its delegation to meet European officials on Wednesday after the talks concluded. The Ukrainian president described Tuesday’s session as constructive and substantive, while Rubio stressed that progress toward ending the war would take time. Attention now turns to Kushner and Witkoff’s meeting with Putin on Thursday, followed by their expected meeting with Zelenskyy in Dublin. The positions the parties announce at these meetings will determine their readiness to continue negotiations on political, security and humanitarian issues.