Putin Meets Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow as a New Three-Way Round and European Seats Are Agreed
After more than two hours at the Kremlin, Witkoff says another trilateral round is agreed with Europeans joining, and Putin offers a joint mission to mined Kostiantynivka before the envoys fly to Dublin.
Thursday, November 12, 2026/3 min read
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left the Kremlin on Thursday after more than two hours with Vladimir Putin, and the first thing they offered was process rather than peace: another round of three-way talks, with Europeans in the room. Witkoff said a new trilateral round was agreed and that European representatives would join the next meeting, according to Reuters, carried by The Moscow Times. Asked whether peace was closer, he answered, "I hope so."
It is a modest result set against a long day of diplomacy. The envoys flew to Moscow from the Abu Dhabi talks that ended on Wednesday with a prisoner exchange and no wider breakthrough, which we reported in our earlier account of the Abu Dhabi outcome. They were due to go on to Dublin to brief Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is attending the European Political Community summit there.
What did Putin say to the US envoys?
Russian state media put the start of the meeting shortly after midday, local time, with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, negotiator Vladimir Medinsky and envoy Kirill Dmitriev taking part, according to Meduza. Ushakov had said beforehand that the agenda was a durable settlement of the crisis around Ukraine, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin would set Russia's positions after hearing what the Americans had to say.
Al Jazeera, drawing on Reuters and AP, reported that Putin rejected any lasting European troop presence in Ukraine, calling such forces a security threat and legitimate targets. It also said he described the border with Ukraine as a "line of control", a reference to the four regions Moscow claims but does not fully hold. Those remarks are as reported by the broadcaster; the Kremlin has not published a readout that we could open.
Kushner described the talks as substantive and detailed. Putin, for his part, proposed a joint Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian mission to Kostiantynivka, modelled on an earlier evacuation in Oleshky, and said Russia would need five days to clear mines there, per the Reuters report. Kyiv has not yet answered that offer in anything we could find.
Why does Europe's seat at the table matter?
Meduza, citing Axios, said the envoys planned to ask Russia to set out its vision of European security, much as Moscow did in December 2021, and had proposed widening the three-way format to include European representatives. Finnish President Alexander Stubb announced a technical meeting of Ukraine, Russia, the US and Europe in the coming weeks. Zelenskyy has said he must agree who speaks for Europe, and that only leaders can settle the final terms.
The Kremlin has said the EU should join at some stage but has recently dismissed the idea, so Witkoff's statement is the clearest sign yet that Washington expects to bring Europeans in. Whether Moscow accepts a European negotiator, and on what terms, is untested.
What happens in Dublin next?
Outlets differed on timing. Al Jazeera said the envoys would meet Zelenskyy in Dublin on Friday, while Meduza and the Ukrainian agency UNN expected them to arrive on Thursday evening. Zelenskyy said earlier that the Americans had flown to Putin with something concrete but doubted they would bring anything concrete back. Territory, above all Kyiv's refusal to give up all of Donbas, remains the obstacle neither side has moved on.
The test now is whether the promised new round gets a date, a venue and a European seat, and whether the Kostiantynivka corridor becomes the next small truce or just another offer on the table.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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