WASHINGTON — The United States is now focused on facilitating direct engagement between Russia and its European partners and on preparing the agenda for the next round of Ukraine peace talks, US envoy Jared Kushner said on Saturday — the clearest signal yet that Washington wants Europe talking to Moscow directly in the next phase of negotiations.

Source: CBS News / AP via Asha News

"Our focus is now on facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the agenda for the next round of trilateral talks," Kushner said in a post on X on Saturday. "Several new ideas emerged from these discussions and are now being explored. Some may lead to breakthroughs directly, while others may evolve into new proposals that help bridge the remaining gaps."

Source: Kyiv Independent via Europe Says

Kushner added that NATO will remain a "critical pillar" of European security and that Ukraine needs "credible" security guarantees. He told reporters on Saturday that "both sides" know compromises will be necessary to end the war, and that he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff are now working on the next steps, according to Al Jazeera's reporting of his remarks.

Source: Al Jazeera via Barbados Gazette

How the talks reached this point

The statement follows two days of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukrainian and Russian delegations — the first direct discussions between the two sides in nine months — which ended on Wednesday without a breakthrough on a broader ceasefire or peace agreement, but with an announced plan for a new prisoner exchange and further talks. Kushner and Witkoff then met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin for about two hours and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin for more than an hour.

The development this builds on

On Friday, European leaders in Dublin named their team for future talks — the EU institutions plus the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland. Kushner's Saturday announcement is the US answer to who engages Moscow next: Europe itself, directly, with Washington facilitating. Read how Europe picked its talks team

The hardest question in the background remains the one Zelenskiy disclosed on Friday: US negotiators asked whether Ukraine would withdraw from the parts of Donbas it still controls if it were granted NATO membership. Zelenskiy said the question had been raised for the first time, that Kyiv would not withdraw, but that he could put a full security package — guarantees, a strong funded army and reconstruction money — to a referendum. Donbas comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, partly occupied by Russia since 2014 and never fully captured.

That Donbas-for-NATO question, and Zelenskiy's referendum condition, were reported in full earlier on Saturday. Read the Donbas-for-NATO story

9 monthssince the last direct Ukraine–Russia talks before Abu Dhabi
2 hoursWitkoff and Kushner with Putin in the Kremlin
5 nationsUK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland in Europe's talks team
4½ yearslength of the war the envoys are trying to end

Russia has long opposed Ukraine joining NATO and demands a Ukrainian withdrawal from areas Kyiv still controls, while several NATO members have reservations about admitting a country at war. Moscow's negotiators in Abu Dhabi also presented wider demands on Europe's post-Cold War security arrangements, according to reporting of the talks — which is precisely why a direct Europe–Moscow channel, if it opens, would be negotiating far more than Ukraine's borders.

What happens next

No date has been announced for the next trilateral round. The agenda Kushner described is being prepared now; whether Moscow accepts direct engagement with the five-nation European team — and whether the Donbas-for-NATO question becomes a formal proposal or stays an exploratory idea — will decide if this phase is a breakthrough track or another round of positioning.