Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Dublin on Wednesday evening, November 11, greeted by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Government Buildings ahead of a bilateral meeting, as more than 50 European leaders gather in the Irish capital for Thursday's European Political Community (EPC) summit — a meeting dominated by Ukraine and European security, held immediately after two days of US-mediated Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Abu Dhabi ended without a breakthrough on the war.
Source: PA Media via Bury Times
The ninth EPC meeting takes place on Thursday, November 12, at the Convention Centre Dublin and will be co-chaired by European Council President António Costa and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the European Council's media advisory of November 11 confirms. Its official theme is "Europe – strong, secure and connected." The EPC, created in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, brings together leaders from across the continent beyond the EU's 27 members. An informal meeting of the EU's 27 heads of state or government, chaired by Costa and hosted by Martin, follows in Dublin on Friday, November 13.
The diplomatic sequence around the summit is unusually direct: according to AP reporting, US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff plan to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow before travelling to Dublin to see Zelenskyy. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will also attend the Dublin meeting and hold bilateral discussions with leaders including Zelenskyy on Thursday, NATO said in a media advisory. Agence Europe reported that French President Emmanuel Macron will put forward a proposal for key principles concerning the future of European security, and that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Costa on November 6 to put financing of military support for Ukraine on the informal EU summit's agenda. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has again been invited to the EPC summit, Agence Europe noted.
Ireland's largest-ever security operation
Zelenskyy's arrival comes amid what Irish authorities describe as the biggest security operation in the history of the Irish state. PA reported that police have shut down parts of Dublin, with vast barriers around the Convention Centre on the North Wall Quay, exclusion zones for air and maritime traffic, and road closures running from Wednesday until late Friday. Thousands of gardaí are deployed, including 100 specially trained motorcycle escort officers who will perform a minimum of 200 VIP movements; gardaí will work 15,000 rolling 12-hour shifts, with officers drafted in from Northern Ireland, Latvia and Portugal. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said there will be approximately 500 public-order-trained members along with 500 officers in various disciplines, some carrying firearms in tactical roles, and a zero-tolerance approach to protests that block infrastructure. Both summit events will be followed by a dinner at the National Gallery of Ireland.
Officials have not announced a joint declaration or a Ukraine agreement for the EPC summit, and the Dublin meeting is not a formal peace conference — it cannot impose terms on either belligerent. Its weight is political: a continent-wide show of support for Zelenskyy, scheduled bilateral meetings throughout the day, and a direct channel between the Abu Dhabi talks, the planned Kushner-Witkoff stop in Moscow, and Europe's leaders in one room.
What happens next: the EPC meets Thursday, with a closing press conference scheduled with Martin, Costa and Swiss President Guy Parmelin, after which EU27 leaders meet informally on Friday, where Ukraine — particularly the financing of military support — is expected to feature. Whether the US envoys' Moscow-then-Dublin sequence produces any movement on territory, security guarantees or Europe's role in a settlement remains the central unanswered question; after Abu Dhabi, those core disputes were left unresolved, with an agreement in principle only on a large prisoner-of-war exchange.