What Did Trump Say After Meeting Putin’s Envoy Dmitriev?

On Thursday 5 November Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, stood in the White House at an event hosted by Melania Trump, then met Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The president told reporters afterwards that “there’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine.”

The same day Giorgia Meloni wrote to European Council President António Costa that Europe is “proceeding in disarray”. Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Madrid, asked that everything be “clearly defined in writing”. Delegations from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv are due in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November, as set out in our earlier pieces on what the Abu Dhabi talks will cover and who is attending.

Trump said he met Dmitriev and did not meet the Ukrainian officials who were in Washington the same day. Meloni asked EU leaders to decide who speaks for the bloc, and Costa promised to put the question to them. Peskov said no second humanitarian operation like Oleshky is planned.

Melania Trump hosted Dmitriev, Russia’s human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, and two Ukrainians: Davyd Arakhamia, who leads President Zelensky’s party in parliament, and the human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. The event marked the local ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian occupied town on the Dnipro in the Kherson region, which the White House announced on 23 October.

Dmitriev thanked the first lady for her “distinguished humanitarian role” in securing the truce, said Putin had personally given instructions for the operation, and told the room that “agreements become actions. And actions save lives.” He gave her a child’s painting inscribed “I love Melania”. He said 34 children had been reunited with their families, a figure Ukrainian authorities have not independently confirmed.

Arakhamia told her she had done an “amazing job” and asked her to “find new missions and to de-escalate more as much as possible.” Lubinets presented her with Ukraine’s Order of Princess Olga, under a decree Zelensky signed on 2 November. Melania Trump said: “Let Oleshky be the modest spark that grows into a lasting flame of peace.” She handed Dmitriev and Arakhamia personal letters for Putin and Zelensky, and the White House did not disclose their contents.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office later that he had met Dmitriev. He said he had not met the Ukrainian officials. “I can’t tell you what I discussed,” he said. Then he added: “There’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine.” He said it might involve all of Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were no similar plans at this time for another humanitarian operation of the Oleshky kind.

Zelensky, in a speech in Spain, said the Oleshky truce proved that “when Putin wants the fighting to stop, it stops.” He added: “We saved hundreds of lives.” In Madrid he announced a Spanish military aid package of 437 million euros after meeting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and said of the coming talks: “It’s crucial that everything is clearly defined in writing, so that there is a clear understanding of the outcome.”

In Brussels, Jared Kushner wrote on X that “the US held productive and substantive discussions with Ukraine, NATO, and our European partners on two essential and interlinked elements of a lasting peace: security guarantees for Ukraine and a broader European security architecture.”

Meloni’s letter to Costa cited talks in Miami and Oslo, the Brussels meetings of that week, and a call between the Norwegian and Finnish leaders and Putin. She wrote that the “proliferation of meetings in different formats” makes the EU look “utterly lacking in credibility” and that proceeding in disarray serves “the interests of those who want this war to continue”. She asked EU leaders to decide “once and for all who sits at the negotiating table on behalf of the European Union”, said she was not seeking a role for herself or Italy, and wanted the question taken up at the leaders’ summit in Dublin later this month, with a formal decision in December. Otherwise, she wrote, Europe risks “irrelevance in the negotiating process.”

Costa replied that Europe “needs to act with coherence, unity and determination” and that the EU’s “interests need to be represented by its institutions.” He said he would raise the issue at the next leaders’ meeting. His reply, as reported, named no envoy and no format.

Abu Dhabi hosts the talks on 10 and 11 November, and Peskov said Vladimir Medinsky will again lead the Russian side. Costa has promised to raise Meloni’s question at the Dublin summit later in November. Meloni wants a decision at the December European Council.

The marker to follow is whether any European representative has a place in Abu Dhabi. If none does, Trump’s “more than Ukraine” will be negotiated by the people who were in the White House on Thursday.