Kushner announces European role in next Ukraine-Russia talks, Moscow has not confirmed

The next round of negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine will be expanded to include European partners, US special envoy Jared Kushner has said. Moscow, however, has not confirmed whether it has agreed to the move.

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ireland this week following a visit to the Kremlin. The pair landed at a military base near Dublin on Thursday, where they addressed the media alongside Zelenskyy.

The key point of progress announced by the trio was that European negotiators would be involved in future discussions on ending the all-out war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022 after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of the country.

Zelenskyy told reporters that Europe would have a 'voice' during future talks and that it would not be kept separately on the sidelines, as had happened in recent trilateral negotiations between US, Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi.

Zelenskyy said: 'This is important for us because the war is in Europe. We will be member of EU in the future and that's why it's very important. For prosperity and for security guarantees it's very important to have Europe.'

In a post on X, Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, wrote: 'Both sides have now agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners.' He said this would allow them to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.

Moscow has not confirmed whether it has agreed to include European negotiators in subsequent talks. In comments shared by the Russian foreign ministry on Friday morning, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said the position of the Europeans has been comprehensively outlined, that they are striving by every means possible to join the negotiations, but that, as the Russian President has said, they must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war.

Earlier this week, Witkoff and Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. During that meeting, Putin signalled that Russia would not back down on territorial demands to control parts of Ukraine.

Putin also rejected the idea of foreign peacekeeping troops being deployed in the country, dampening hopes of a nearing deal to end the war.