US envoy Jared Kushner said on Thursday, 12 November 2026, that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to expand the next round of US-brokered peace talks to include European nations, and that Washington was working toward what would be the war’s largest prisoner exchange.
Kushner wrote on X: “We are also working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the war, potentially reuniting thousands of people with their families.” No details of the deal were given.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the prospect of European participation, saying he hoped the agenda would include efforts towards ceasefires and defusing the conflict, after talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Kushner in Dublin.
Witkoff said President Vladimir Putin had agreed to let European representatives join the next round. Kushner and Witkoff had travelled to Moscow to meet Putin and then to Dublin to meet Zelenskyy.
The talks so far involved Russian, Ukrainian and US officials who met in Abu Dhabi this week for the first time in nine months. Both sides said some progress was made, but major differences remain, particularly on territory. Russia holds a fifth of Ukraine, and Kyiv refuses to give up the rest of its eastern Donbas region.
However, the Kremlin on Friday, 13 November, qualified that position. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Europe must show it is ready to contribute to the peace process before a decision is made on letting Europeans join the negotiations, suggesting Russia has not yet committed, despite the US envoys saying on Thursday that Putin had agreed. Peskov said: “Once we understand their genuine intention and readiness to contribute to the peace process, then it will be possible to make a decision on holding dialogue on a Ukrainian settlement in an expanded format.”
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Source: Reuters
