Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday, November 12, to let European representatives join the next round of Ukraine peace talks, US envoy Steve Witkoff said after meeting Putin in the Kremlin — a move Reuters described as one that could mark a breakthrough in the US-led effort to end the war.

Source: Reuters, Nov 12, 2026

"The Europeans will join at the next meeting, which we consider to be a very important moment because they are our partners and it's important to us that they take part," Witkoff told Russian state television after the talks, Reuters reported. AFP reported via EU Perspectives that the US envoys had directly urged Putin to accept European representatives' participation, and that Witkoff described the meeting as progress.

Source: Reuters, Nov 12, 2026

A goal the envoys carried into the Kremlin

Winning a European seat at the table was an aim the envoys had stated openly before the meeting. During the Kremlin talks, Jared Kushner told Putin that Washington had detected what he called "a big change" on the European side and was confident that expanding the peace talks to include the Europeans would not hinder progress, Reuters reported. The announcement came after two days of US-mediated negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11 — the first direct US-mediated Russia-Ukraine negotiations in nine months — which ended with an agreement on a large-scale prisoner exchange but no breakthrough on territory, security guarantees or a ceasefire.

The Abu Dhabi talks ended with a prisoner-exchange agreement while core disputes remained unresolved. Read the Abu Dhabi talks report

Putin's conditions — and a Kremlin aide who did not confirm

Putin's own comments underlined how difficult the wider negotiations could become. He said Moscow had never opposed dialogue with Europe — "It was they who broke off the dialogue with the Russian Federation," he said — but warned Washington to work with its allies: "We would very much like you, gentlemen, and the US administration as a whole, to work with your European allies so that they can finally make up their minds as to what they want: peace or war in Ukraine," Reuters quoted him as saying. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Europeans' actions must stop being "contradictory" for Russia to believe in their desire for peace, Interfax reported via Kyiv24.

Source: Kyiv24 / Interfax, Nov 12, 2026

In a briefing after the talks, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov did not confirm that the Europeans would join the next round of peace talks, and said their current stance on Ukraine amounted to "a recipe for endless war", Reuters reported. Ushakov also appeared to restate Russian demands that NATO give up any military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine. The European seat at the next round is therefore, so far, Witkoff's announcement — not yet a Kremlin confirmation.

Hard lines unchanged: territory and foreign troops

Nothing in Thursday's outcome softened Moscow's core demands. Putin warned again that sending Western troops into Ukraine once a peace deal was concluded would trigger a resumption of the war because Russia would see it as a threat to its own security, and he showed no sign of moderating his territorial demands, saying what Russia considers its state border should be the only meaningful demarcation line with Ukraine, Reuters reported. Russia holds about one fifth of Ukraine, and Kyiv refuses to give up the rest of the Donbas region in its east.

Zelenskyy's reaction, and what happens next

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Witkoff and Kushner were expected to meet later in Dublin, said he found the US approach of discussing a new European security order with Russia "a bit strange", Reuters reported. Witkoff also said Putin plans to discuss Ukraine with US President Donald Trump at next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, AFP reported via EU Perspectives. No date or venue for the next round of talks — the first that would include European representatives — has been announced.

Source: EU Perspectives / AFP, Nov 12, 2026