US envoys shuttle from Putin to Zelensky as Ukraine war nears five years

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sat down with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday for roughly two hours, then flew straight to Dublin to brief Volodymyr Zelensky for more than an hour. The whirlwind shuttle marks Washington's latest push to restart stalled peace efforts as the war grinds toward its five-year mark.

It follows a session in Abu Dhabi this week that put Ukrainian and Russian delegations at the same table for the first time in nine months. There was no major breakthrough — just an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, with the figure still unannounced, and a pledge to hold another round.

The next round is where it gets messy: Europe is invited, but nobody agrees on how. Witkoff told reporters in Moscow that 'the Europeans will join at the next meeting.' Zelensky, speaking in Dublin, went further — Europe will be a 'negotiation team — not some way, not separately. They will have a voice.' The U.S. and Zelensky want Europe to appoint one single negotiator to face Moscow. Kushner said a goal of the Putin meeting was getting the Russian leader's blessing for European representatives to take part.

The Kremlin is cool on the whole idea. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Europe must first name a representative, adding that 'the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar.' Moscow objects to European involvement because those countries are financing and supplying Ukraine's military. Putin also warned that any European troops sent to Ukraine after a ceasefire would be 'absolutely unacceptable' and treated as a legitimate target — 'in other words, the war would resume immediately.'

Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov called Thursday's talks 'substantive, constructive, frank and useful' and said Putin reminded the envoys of Moscow's 2021 proposals demanding NATO roll back its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe, promising 'fresh considerations.' Putin also said Russia now regards its border with Ukraine, as sealed by any prospective deal, to extend across the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed in 2022 but never fully controlled. The talk of trading NATO concessions for peace alarms European leaders, who are wary of Putin's intentions on the continent.

Zelensky was in Dublin for a gathering of more than 40 European countries that included NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said the U.S., Europe and Ukraine are 'very much aligned' on security guarantees after a January meeting in Paris. 'But now of course we need the peace deal, or at least a ceasefire,' Rutte said. Meanwhile the fighting rolls on along the 1,200-kilometer front line: Russia's Defense Ministry said it downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight and struck a drone plant in Kyiv plus three facilities near the capital, while Ukraine's air force said Moscow fired missiles and 123 drones — 73 of them jet-powered — with hits recorded at 17 locations. Zelensky also flagged fresh disruptions to the U.S. Starshield system, saying speed limits capped Ukrainian drones at 161 kph and a military investigation found the restrictions weren't random errors. Last month Elon Musk acknowledged SpaceX had throttled Starlink in Ukraine for about a week.