Kushner says U.S. narrowed gaps without providing details
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he was “happy” with the “changes” in the approach of U.S. mediators during the first day of trilateral talks with Russia on ending the invasion of Ukraine. Speaking in Copenhagen the previous night, the Ukrainian president described the talks as “constructive and quite substantive” and said he hoped for more progress as they entered their second day.
In a post on social media, Zelenskyy said Russia had claimed at the talks that it occupied half of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. He rejected that assessment, writing, “This is the problem. Putin lives in a different reality.”
Zelenskyy wrote: “I can draw a picture for him too where I fully occupy Russia. But it’s not true.” He added: “What was good is that the American side confirmed the Ukrainian assessment of what is happening on the battlefield.”
Jared Kushner and businessman Steve Witkoff are mediating the negotiations as U.S. envoys. A photograph published with the live coverage showed UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan speaking to Witkoff on 10 November.
Kushner told delegates that the United States had “narrowed the gaps” between the warring sides, but he did not provide details. He said he hoped to move toward a “solution” to Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.
Zelenskyy was expected to address the Danish parliament late Wednesday morning. During his visit to Copenhagen, he was pictured in an informal conversation with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen at the University of Copenhagen.
Kushner did not specify what gaps had narrowed, and the live report did not set out terms from the negotiations. Zelenskyy had described the first day as constructive and hoped for more progress as the talks continued.
The Guardian’s Europe Live coverage, presented by Jakub Krupa, also reported that Bulgaria marked a national day of mourning after a deadly motorway accident killed 11 people and left over 50 injured.
Other updates in the same live report said Latvia and Lithuania had several air-threat alerts during the night, Portugal was bracing for the impact of storm Charles, a general strike was getting under way in Spain, and Poland was marking its independence day.