New Round of Ukraine Talks Set, European Representatives to Participate

A new round of trilateral peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US has been scheduled, this time with European representatives included, senior US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner confirmed on Thursday, Nov. 12, following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The meeting could take place as early as next week. Speaking to CNN’s reporters at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport shortly before leaving Russia, Witkoff said progress had been made during the roughly 2.5-hour meeting at the Kremlin, though neither envoy disclosed the date or the venue of the next multilateral round.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “People didn’t think that we were going to restart trilateral [talks]. We’ve restarted it. We’ve set a new meeting,” Witkoff said, adding “This is what [US] President [Donald] Trump wants to see.” The new round would follow the Nov. 10-11 talks in Abu Dhabi, the first trilateral negotiations since February, which produced an agreement on a large-scale prisoner of war (POW) exchange, although no breakthrough was reached on territory. According to Interfax-Ru, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed that the Abu Dhabi track would continue, noting that Moscow would stay in contact with the envoys ahead of a planned Putin-Trump meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China, on Nov. 18-19. During the same summit, the Kremlin expects a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as well. Other Topics of Interest At the 9th European Political Community Summit, Zelensky also urged European leaders for deliveries of Patriot and NASAMS interceptors, alongside F-16 ammunition and energy equipment. Europe’s place at the negotiating table Europe’s role has been one of the most contentious questions surrounding the talks. European governments were left out of the main negotiations in Abu Dhabi, although the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission managed to hold separate consultations with the Ukrainian and US delegations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed European representatives’ presence altogether, suggesting they “stay at the hotel.” The arrangement drew criticism well before the talks began, and Kyiv had pressed for European involvement for weeks. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that no decisions on Ukraine’s future can be made without Kyiv, while European governments have stressed that no arrangement can be imposed on either Ukraine or Europe without their consent. Ahead of Abu Dhabi talks, US officials told Politico that Witkoff and Kushner also wanted it to be the last meeting without full European participation. Following Thursday’s meeting with Putin, Witkoff said that the goal had been reached. “They’re our partners, and it’s important for them to be involved,” he said, according to CNN. Moscow, however, has yet to show the same enthusiasm. Ushakov acknowledged that European governments were “making every effort to get involved in the negotiations,” but told CNN they first had to decide whether they wanted peace or a continuation of the war, arguing that their actions so far pointed to the latter. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused European leaders of undermining their own calls for peace by signaling readiness to send troops to Ukraine. The move, he said, was pushing toward an “expansion of the war.” Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.