Putin agrees Europeans may join next round of peace talks on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that European representatives may take part in the next round of peace negotiations on Ukraine, U.S. presidential special envoy Steve Vitkoff said after a meeting in Moscow with Putin that also included Jared Kushner.

Vitkoff, speaking after a four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Putin, said: "Europeans will join the next meeting, which we consider very important. They are our partners and it is important that they be included."

Kremlin reaction and U.S. messages

During talks in the Kremlin, American representative Jared Kushner told Putin that Washington had observed a significant shift on the European side and expressed confidence that enlarging the peace talks to include Europeans would not impede progress.

Putin said Moscow had always been open to dialogue with the European Union. "We have never opposed a dialogue with Europe and we have never broken off that dialogue. In fact, they were the ones who broke off the dialogue with the Russian Federation," he told the U.S. envoys.

At the same time, Putin warned that any plan to deploy troops to Ukraine after a peace agreement could reignite the war because Russia would view such deployments as a threat to its security.

After leaving Moscow, Vitkoff and Kushner flew to Ireland and met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said he welcomed the prospect of European participation in the talks and hoped the agenda would include steps toward a ceasefire and de-escalation. "We decided that we will work on an agenda for any kind of de-escalation, some kind of ceasefire," he said.

Photo: EPA/VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV