Zelensky says Europe will join next Ukraine peace round after Dublin talks

Europe to join the next round

On Thursday, 12 November, Volodymyr Zelensky met US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Dublin and said European representatives will take part in the next round of negotiations with Russia. He argued that Europe should have a voice because the war is taking place on the continent, and he pointed to Ukraine's future EU membership and the need for European security guarantees. Kushner said the US had told Vladimir Putin that a deal could not be concluded without Europeans at the negotiating table. Witkoff told Russian state television that the Europeans would attend because they are partners and it matters to the US that they take part. Zelensky also reported an agreement on the humanitarian track, under which prisoners will be freed in what he expects to be the largest exchange since the start of the war.

Envoys in Moscow and Dublin

Witkoff and Kushner had met Putin at the Kremlin earlier that day. Putin told them Europe must decide whether it wants peace or war, and he called the prospect of foreign troops in Kyiv after the conflict unacceptable. Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov was more guarded about a European role, saying Europeans were trying to take part in every way but must make clear whether they want peace or a continuation of the war. Kushner told a press conference in Dublin that he thinks Putin is ready to try the European format. The American envoys left Moscow for Dublin that evening, where they met Zelensky.

Format and the question of a single EU voice

In Dublin, Zelensky also met national security advisers from the E4 countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy) and from the European Commission and European Council. ANSA reported that Witkoff and Kushner met EU institution sherpas and E4 sherpas, with Poland also present, and described the meeting as productive. The aim is to move the talks from a trilateral format of the United States, Russia and Ukraine to a multilateral one that includes Europeans. Who speaks for the EU is still unresolved: France and Germany back an E3 format of Paris, Berlin and London alongside EU institution representatives, while Meloni opposes that setup and wants a shared mandate and one voice for all EU member states. The Baltic states have suggested Kaja Kallas, the High Representative, and Costa as possible interlocutors, and the European Council president says the right people already exist. The question will be taken up again at the informal European Council in Dublin.

Prisoners, Abu Dhabi and the front

Talks in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November brought Moscow and Kyiv delegations together under US mediation, the first direct talks between the warring parties in more than eight months. The only tangible result announced was another large prisoner exchange. Alongside it, a new humanitarian operation was agreed for Kostyantynivka, a besieged city in Donbas where 3,000 civilians are trapped. Zelensky also denounced new restrictions on the Starlink system. Separately, a senior Russian officer was killed by a car bomb in St Petersburg. The war has now lasted more than four and a half years.

What comes next

The next negotiating round is expected shortly after the Volenterosi summit on 19 November, and its planned format is multilateral with European participation. Whether Europe will speak with a single voice remains open. Russia's position on European participation is still ambiguous, as Ushakov's comments made clear, so the composition of the next round has not been settled.