Putin Witkoff Meeting: What the Envoys Bring to Moscow

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner landed in Moscow on the morning of Thursday 12 November to see Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin “in the first half of the day”, in the words of Yuri Ushakov, the president’s foreign policy aide. They carry three things from the Abu Dhabi talks that ended the day before: Kyiv’s ceasefire proposals, which the Russian delegation said it had no mandate to answer; a request that Putin accept Europeans in the next round; and the territorial question, which Ushakov called the hardest of all.

Some of the answers were given before the envoys arrived. In Dublin on Wednesday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky said of the American pressure on Donbas: “It’s impossible to talk this way with us, with an independent, sovereign country.” In Paris the same day, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that what Russia wants from the talks, the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets, are “European decisions” and that “America can’t negotiate on our behalf.” In Moscow on Thursday morning, Ushakov said of Europe’s search for a single negotiator: “I think it really will be difficult. So far they can’t.”

This piece follows our account of why the envoys went to Moscow after Abu Dhabi. From Moscow they fly to Dublin, where Zelensky is attending the European Political Community summit and expects to meet them on Thursday evening.

Zelensky said in Dublin on 11 November that giving up Donbas is “impossible”, that Ukraine needs “security guarantees from America, not from Russia”, and that Europe must choose its negotiators in November. Kallas said sanctions and frozen assets are decisions “that can’t be made by anybody else but Europe”. Ushakov said Putin will discuss the settlement with the envoys and that Europe still cannot name its representative. Kushner said that one European voice would be “a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation”. Lavrov said Russia’s goals “have not changed” since June 2024.

Zelensky spoke at a joint press conference with Micheál Martin, Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister), at Government Buildings in Dublin on Wednesday 11 November, the evening before the European Political Community summit, a gathering of some 50 European leaders that Ireland hosts this year. Zelensky’s remarks are given in translation. Asked about the American negotiators returning to the Donbas question, he said: “It’s impossible to talk this way with us, with an independent, sovereign country.” He said Ukraine’s security depends mainly on Washington: “We need security guarantees from America, not from Russia.”

He listed what Ukraine’s delegation had put on the table in Abu Dhabi: “issues concerning a ceasefire, an energy ceasefire, a ceasefire at sea, a ceasefire involving critical infrastructure are being raised”. The Russian side, he said, “says that they do not have a mandate to respond to these specific issues”, so “we agreed that the American side would meet with the Russian leader, and all these issues would be raised there”. He expects the reply in person: “I expect to receive answers to this and to meet with them tomorrow evening in Dublin.” He added that he did not really believe they would come back with concrete answers.

On timing he said: “I think that it’s important for this negotiating team to get the result this year.” He said he believed the Americans “genuinely want this”, that he was “not very confident” but that “there is still hope”. He pointed to a possible “change in the political landscape” in Europe in 2027 as the reason every participant wants a result before then. On Europe’s place at the table: “We need to choose who will represent Europe, and it’s important. We need to do it in November, because we count that negotiations will continue.” Martin said: “There has to be a European voice at the table when our interests are discussed.”

Ushakov told reporters on Wednesday, before the Abu Dhabi results had reached him: “We don’t yet know the results of the talks in Abu Dhabi. But they’re bringing something.” On Thursday morning he said Putin would discuss the settlement of the conflict with the envoys, that the meeting would take place in the first half of the day, and that the territorial question is the most difficult one. Kirill Dmitriev met the two Americans at Vnukovo airport.

Asked about Kushner’s call for one European negotiator, Ushakov said he fully agreed with the American’s remark about European disagreements, and added, in Russian: “I think it really will be difficult. So far they can’t.” He went on: “It depends on who they will be negotiating with, and that is unknown.”

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, was asked on Thursday about reports that the United States had proposed fixing the Donbas border along the current line of contact. “You want me to comment on newspaper articles? No, I will not do that,” he said, in Russian. On Wednesday he had said that Putin “has always maintained, and continues to maintain, that he is open to contact with everyone, including the Europeans”, but that “for the moment, the statements we hear from the Europeans do not indicate any desire”. Putin is ready to meet Friedrich Merz and other European leaders, possibly at the G20 summit in Florida on 14 and 15 December, Peskov said, though “there is no decision yet regarding Putin’s participation in the G20 summit in the United States”.

Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, said in a television interview on Wednesday that Putin would hear the Russian delegation first, then the envoys, and then decide. The goals of what Moscow calls its special military operation “were formulated by the president in June 2024 and have not changed since then”, he said. Of Zelensky: “He is constantly playing his own games.”

Kushner briefed reporters in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday after the second day of talks. He said he would ask Putin for his “blessing” to extend the format to the Europeans. Then he turned the question around: if Europe could identify one person to speak on its behalf, he said, that would be “a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation”. Europe, he said, “is a very diverse mix of a lot of different personalities and perspectives and interests”. He said the two sides had agreed on “the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners” and that “we see some openings and some opportunities”.

Witkoff, asked by reporters in Moscow on Thursday whether Abu Dhabi had brought a settlement closer, answered that he hoped so.

Kallas spoke in a television interview in Paris on Wednesday. “What Russia wants out of these talks is the lifting of sanctions and also the release of the frozen assets,” she said. “These are European decisions. They can’t be made by anybody else but Europe.” And: “America can’t negotiate on our behalf.” She said Moscow’s preference was no mystery: “Of course, Russia does not want to talk to Europe, because it’s easier to talk to the US.”

Kristen Michal, Estonia’s prime minister, said in an interview on Wednesday that Europe already has its people: “I would say that we already have agreed on the persons,” naming António Costa, the European Council president, and Kallas, who “has the role to represent us in the matters of foreign affairs”. Gitanas Nausėda, Lithuania’s president, said in Dublin on Wednesday evening, after meeting Zelensky, that Costa was “the simplest legal option, and perhaps the person who already has a mandate”. On the talks themselves Nausėda said: “They will try to buy time and pretend to negotiate, perhaps even reach agreements on some nonessential matters.” A ceasefire “would be difficult at this point”, he said, and “Russia will still use the coming winter to torment the people of Ukraine”.

Giorgia Meloni wrote to Costa on 5 November that the EU was “all over the place” on Ukraine and asked that the question of one voice go on the agenda of the informal EU leaders’ meeting in Dublin on Friday 13 November. Costa replied that the EU’s interests “need to be represented by its institutions, in accordance with the Treaties”. Berlin, for its part, said on Wednesday that the chance of contact between Merz and Putin had risen. “We have now reached an understanding in Abu Dhabi on the broad outlines,” said Stefan Cornelius, the German government spokesman. “This is also being conveyed to the Russian president, and talks can move forward on that basis.”

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, wrote on Telegram on Thursday morning that “a drone strike caused a fire on the third to sixth floors of a nine-storey residential building in the Solomiansky district”, with “partial structural damage at the level of the fifth floor”. Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said air defences brought down five drones heading for the capital during the same night.

Thursday 12 November, Moscow: Ushakov’s readout after the Kremlin meeting. Watch for three words: whether it mentions the ceasefire proposals Zelensky listed, whether it mentions Europeans in the next round, and whether it repeats “territorial” as the hardest issue.

Thursday evening, Dublin: Zelensky said he expects answers in person. His statement after seeing the envoys will say whether Putin gave a mandate on the ceasefire list, or only on prisoners.

Thursday, the prisoner numbers: Kushner said they would be finalised today. Zelensky spoke on Tuesday of “1,000 for 1,000” or “1,500 for 1,500”.

Friday 13 November, Dublin: the informal EU leaders’ meeting that Martin said will discuss who represents Europe. Zelensky’s deadline is the end of the month. A name on Friday would meet it with two weeks to spare.

14 and 15 December, Florida: the G20 summit where Peskov said Putin might meet Merz, if Putin goes.

The envoys arrived in Moscow with Kyiv’s conditions and Europe’s answer already on the record. Zelensky’s statement in Dublin on Thursday night will show whether they brought back what he asked for: answers on the ceasefire list, and a mandate that the Abu Dhabi delegation did not have.