US envoys Kushner and Witkoff meet Putin in Moscow ahead of Dublin talks with Zelensky

Arrival in Moscow

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the US envoys, arrived in Moscow on Thursday, 12 November, to hold talks with Vladimir Putin on a peace agreement for Ukraine. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy, met them when they landed at Vnukovo airport and escorted them into central Moscow through damp snow. The Kremlin meeting was scheduled for the first half of the day, and it would be the tenth time Witkoff has met Putin in person. According to Russian television, the delegation left the airport at 05:00 Lisbon time. Kushner said the visit would take stock of what was discussed in Abu Dhabi and try to make progress, after which the envoys would travel to Dublin for a review meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Abu Dhabi talks and the prisoner exchange

The Moscow trip follows two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Wednesday, 11 November. Those talks closed with the announcement of a broad prisoner exchange, but without public progress in the wider negotiations. Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian negotiating team, described the exchange in those terms, while Kushner called it the largest humanitarian prisoner release, although its details have not been disclosed. Zelensky said he was still waiting for more details from the American team and counted on Moscow agreeing to release up to 1,200 prisoners.

Moscow's conditions

Medinsky said on Russian television that dialogue will continue, but he added that Moscow will sign a deal only on its own conditions. He said he personally sees no possibilities for territorial exchanges. Russia has made the war negotiations conditional on agreeing a new security architecture for Europe. The Russian position leaves little room for the territorial trade-offs that Kyiv has rejected, which means the Moscow meeting starts from positions that were not narrowed in Abu Dhabi.

Kyiv's demands in Dublin

Zelensky, speaking in Dublin alongside Irish prime minister Micheál Martin, said the United States would have to return with concrete proposals after its contacts with the Kremlin, though he doubted Putin was willing to facilitate progress. He ruled out negotiating a military withdrawal from Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine partly occupied by Russia, and said the outcome would depend largely on whether Washington pressed Putin. He reiterated the demand for security guarantees that would prevent a renewed Russian aggression, and said Kyiv is still awaiting a response from both Moscow and Washington. He was in Dublin for a summit of the European Political Community, and he welcomed a change in US tone toward European participation in the talks. Zelensky said a window of opportunity could exist for a ceasefire before 2027 and expressed hope for results this year and next. Earlier, in late October, he had rejected a possible Yalta-style arrangement that would redistribute spheres of influence among Washington, Moscow and Beijing.