US envoys to visit Moscow and Dublin on Thursday for talks with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy respectively
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to the “largest prisoner exchange” of the war at their first US-brokered talks since February but made little progress towards a broader peace agreement.
Both sides sent senior delegations to the two-day talks, led by Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, in an effort to find a solution to end the nearly-five-year war.
David Arakhamia, a senior member of Ukraine’s delegation, said the Russian team had arrived with “very, very strict directives”, making it difficult to narrow differences. But he said there had been “really big progress” on security guarantees for Ukraine after the war. “I think we have good momentum to bring about a solution before the new year,” Arakhamia said.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also struck an upbeat tone, saying he could see a path to an agreement. “These deals are very hard and complex, and this one is very emotional, very complex. It’s a very hot war,” he said. “But we see all the different ingredients to make a deal. We just have to figure out how to refine those ingredients, organise them and create the right structure and pathway.”
