MOSCOW, November 12, 2026 — U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner sat down with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday, pressing for momentum after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi produced a prisoner swap but no path to ending the war. The meeting comes as Ukraine reports fresh disruptions to its military satellite communications, complicating frontline defenses against Russian drone strikes.
Kremlin Talks Focus on Abu Dhabi Results
Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Moscow Thursday morning, welcomed by Putin’s special representative Kirill Dmitriev. Russian state media broadcast footage of handshakes and embraces on the tarmac before the envoys entered the Kremlin for a session with Putin and three senior advisors.
At the opening, Putin asked the Americans to “convey gratitude” to President Donald Trump for “organizing contacts between Russia and Ukraine,” according to Russian media reports. Witkoff told Putin that Trump was “seeking to end the conflict in Ukraine as quickly as possible,” RIA Novosti reported. The Russian leader described the Abu Dhabi discussions as having taken place in a “positive atmosphere” where Ukrainian and Russian delegations “worked effectively.”
Kushner, who holds no official government title but acts as a top diplomatic adviser to his father-in-law, said the Moscow meeting would center on the outcome of the Abu Dhabi round. Those talks concluded Wednesday with an agreement on a large-scale prisoner exchange — exact numbers still unannounced — but no concrete steps toward a ceasefire or territorial settlement.
“We see some openings and some opportunities,” Kushner told reporters. “We’ve relayed to President Putin directly several times and to his team, that the only way to get this done is to have them by our side. And I think they’re receptive to it.”
Humanitarian Proposal and European Seat
During the Kremlin session, Putin proposed a five-day humanitarian mission to the frontline city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where he said 400 to 500 civilians remain. He pointed to the recent U.S.-brokered evacuation of Oleshky, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as a model. “Let’s do the same thing we did in Oleshky and invite representatives of the foreign press, including the American press,” Putin said, according to RIA Novosti.
Ukrainian officials have previously resisted such localized truces in contested areas, arguing they risk cementing Russian territorial gains. Kostyantynivka remains under Ukrainian control, though Russian forces have advanced toward it.
Kushner said the U.S. had begun discussions with European capitals on a post-war “security architecture” for the continent. He added that European countries want a role in the negotiations to end the war. The U.S. and Kyiv have pressed Europe to appoint a single envoy to negotiate with Moscow on security guarantees, a format the Kremlin has so far rejected.
“As for the position of the leadership of a number of European countries, they are essentially collectively deceiving the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky told state outlet TASS. “They are financing and supplying weapons to one of the warring parties, thereby essentially contributing to the mass deaths of civilians.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, speaking from the European Political Community summit in Dublin, said he expected Putin to agree to a European seat at the table. “The important thing is that Russia comes to the table and that Russia is ready to talk,” Merz said.
Starlink Disruptions Hamper Ukrainian Defenses
As the Moscow talks unfolded, President Volodymyr Zelensky told European leaders in Dublin that Ukraine’s military-grade Starshield service — developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for government use — faced “systematic” restrictions for the second time in weeks. The disruptions, ongoing for several days, were preventing Kyiv from intercepting Russian jet-powered drones effectively.
“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,” Zelensky said. A similar outage in late October lasted about a week before service was restored. U.S. officials and SpaceX offered differing explanations at the time; the source of the current restrictions remains unclear.
Zelensky said the disruption was “helping the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more accurate strikes against Ukraine.”
Next Stop: Dublin
Witkoff and Kushner are scheduled to fly to Dublin later Thursday to brief Zelensky on the Moscow discussions. The Ukrainian president is among more than 40 leaders gathered for the European Political Community summit, alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Zelensky expressed optimism about the negotiating timeline, saying a “window of opportunity” existed to reach a peace deal by the beginning of 2027. “There really is this window of opportunity, when all the participants involved in this negotiating process could get the result by the beginning of 2027,” he said at a press conference with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Rutte, following a January meeting in Paris, said the U.S., Europe and Ukraine were “very much aligned” on what security guarantees should look like. “But now of course we need the peace deal, or at least a ceasefire,” he said.
Putin reiterated to the U.S. envoys that any foreign troop presence in Ukraine was “unacceptable” and would constitute a “legitimate target for the Russian army.” He also restated Moscow’s view that its border with Ukraine runs along the current line of control — a reference to Russia’s 2022 annexation claims over four Ukrainian regions it has never fully captured.
Sources
- Trump Envoys Witkoff and Kushner Meet With Putin in Moscow for Ukraine Talks
- Trump envoys to meet Putin in Moscow after latest Ukraine talks end with no breakthrough | CNN Politics
- Ukraine peace talks: Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff conclude talks with Putin
- Ukraine says military Starlink disrupted again as US envoys meet Putin in Moscow
- U.S. envoys Kushner, Witkoff meet with Putin at Kremlin in talks to end Russia-Ukraine war | CBC News
Photo: kremlin.ru (CC BY 4.0)
