US envoys meet Putin in Kremlin after Abu Dhabi talks yield prisoner swap deal

Putin calls European troops in Ukraine after a ceasefire ‘absolutely unacceptable’

U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys met Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, briefing the Russian leader for about two hours as Washington sought new momentum in peace efforts following two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, brokered the Abu Dhabi talks — the first direct discussions between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv in nine months as the push for peace stalled. The negotiations, which ended Wednesday, produced no major breakthrough aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners, with the exact figure still to be announced. Kushner and Witkoff are scheduled to fly to Dublin, Ireland, for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the conflict stretches toward the five-year mark.

In Moscow, Kushner said the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi “agreed on many of the principles, but are still apart on some of the way to accomplish” peace. He said one goal of the Kremlin meeting was to secure Putin’s blessing for European representatives to join the talks, which are examining the continent’s broader security arrangements.

The United States and Zelenskyy want Europe to appoint a single person to negotiate with Moscow. Moscow has objected to European involvement in the direct negotiations, complaining that European countries are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort. European governments, for their part, are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent.

Many in Europe see the inclusion of Moscow in discussions about postwar European security as an unwelcome concession to Putin, who has described NATO’s eastward expansion as a main security threat to Russia and has demanded that the alliance’s troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders. Some analysts say negotiators may be looking to grant Russia concessions on NATO’s strategy in return for peace in Ukraine — a possibility that has alarmed European leaders.

Putin reaffirmed to the envoys that any European troops sent to Ukraine after a ceasefire would be “absolutely unacceptable” and that Russia would regard such a deployment as a security threat and legitimate targets. “In other words, the war would resume immediately,” he said. He also said Russia regards the border with Ukraine that a prospective peace deal would seal as extending to cover the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed in 2022 but has never fully controlled.

In Dublin, Zelenskyy was attending a meeting of more than 40 European countries that also includes NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Rutte said the United States, Europe and Ukraine are “very much aligned” on what security guarantees should look like, following a meeting in Paris in January. “But now of course we need the peace deal, or at least a ceasefire,” Rutte said.

Zelenskyy said political changes, including Democrats taking over the U.S. Congress in January following midterm elections and balloting in France next year, could bring “a window of opportunity” for a peace deal. “The political landscape in Europe could change in 2027. … We also see changes already taking place in the United States,” Zelenskyy said in Dublin late Wednesday.

He called the proposed prisoner exchange a positive step but insisted Ukraine will not surrender Russian-occupied territory in return for peace. Russia and Ukraine have occasionally swapped prisoners, but both sides remain far apart on their terms for accepting a settlement.

Fighting has continued throughout the diplomacy along the 1,200-kilometer (about 750-mile) front line. Russia’s bigger army has been held back by Ukrainian resistance, while Moscow’s drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities have disrupted heat, electricity and water supplies to Ukrainian cities, sapping public morale, in what Kyiv calls a “weaponization of winter.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 71 Ukrainian drones overnight and that its forces struck a drone-manufacturing plant in Kyiv and three other facilities producing missile fuel and drone components around the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched missiles and 123 drones overnight, 73 of them jet-powered models, with hits recorded at 17 locations.

Zelenskyy said Thursday on social media that Ukraine is experiencing another slowdown in the U.S. Starshield system — SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service — which the country needs to defend itself against Russian attacks. Military units have recorded “significant disruptions,” including speed restrictions limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kph (100 mph), Zelenskyy said, adding that a military investigation established the restrictions were not random errors. Ukraine uses Starlink and Starshield to intercept Russian drones and launch its own strikes.

Last month, speed limits on Ukrainian drones severely disrupted operations and alarmed Kyiv officials who fear U.S. support could drop off. Elon Musk acknowledged that SpaceX throttled the Starlink service in Ukraine for about a week, saying the system could not be used for offensive strikes against Russia. Zelenskyy said in Dublin that the current speed limits cover operations in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and that Kyiv is trying to find out from U.S. officials what is happening. “If someone in America is making decisions that basically treat Ukrainian territory as if it is not Ukrainian, then this tells us where things are going,” he said.

Separately, a Russian serviceman was killed in St. Petersburg early Thursday when his vehicle exploded, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s main criminal investigation agency. The committee did not identify the victim or say who was behind the bombing. The Fontanka news outlet reported the victim was a colonel and that a bomb in his car exploded as he drove off. Several senior Russian military officers have been killed by bombings and other attacks that Moscow blames on Ukraine, and Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some attacks on Russian soil.