US envoy Kushner says he aims to broker Europe-Russia talks on Ukraine

Europe’s direct engagement with Moscow as part of Ukraine-Russia peace talks is edging closer to becoming a reality.US envoy Jared Kushner has said he is working with Russia, Ukraine and Europe to move peace talks to the next stage, including facilitating direct engagement between Europe and Moscow.Kushner told reporters Saturday that “both sides” know that compromises will be necessary to end the war, and that he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff were now working on next steps.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump-Xi-Putin trilateral meeting at APEC: What to expectlist 2 of 3Russian casualties ‘reach 450,000’: What that means for the Ukraine warlist 3 of 3US suggested Ukraine cede parts of Donbas to Russia to become part of NATOend of listTrump son-in-law’s comments follow peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday that failed to reach a breakthrough on ending the war, but resulted in a prisoner exchange.The prospect of Europe’s involvement in the talks has grown in recent weeks, with leaders agreeing on Friday to send five representatives of European countries to represent the bloc at future peace talks.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he did not think it was possible to think about European security “without Europe”.The Kremlin has signalled an openness to negotiations with Europe, but it has criticised a lack of proposals from the bloc.The five countries attending are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland – the five countries that have signalled readiness to send troops as part of a “coalition of the willing” to secure Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.In a lengthy post on X on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the bloc must “state clearly” what it wants for the post-war period, “including to the Russians”.Macron also stated his belief that Ukraine, which has Europe’s largest conventional army, has a key role to play in Europe’s post-war context alongside NATO, which he added is a “place where it fully belongs”.Zelenskyy said Friday that US negotiators had asked during the Abu Dhabi talks whether Ukraine would withdraw its troops from its eastern region of Donbas in exchange for joining NATO.The war has raged while negotiations continue. November leaks from Russia’s official statistics agency showed that Russia’s war effort has so far cost the lives of at least 450,000 soldiers.