US envoys meet Putin in Moscow to discuss Russia-Ukraine war

x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, right, welcomes US envoys Steve Witkoff, left, and Jared Kushner, centre, upon their arrival in Moscow [AFP] By Al Jazeera Staff , AP and Reuters Published On 12 Nov 2026 12 Nov 2026 Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected any proposals to have an ongoing European troop presence in Ukraine, saying that Russia sees them as a security threat and warning they would be legitimate targets.

Putin also says that he views the border with Ukraine as the line of control – a reference to Moscow’s claim over the four Ukrainian regions that it annexed in 2022, but never fully captured.

The comments came during talks between Putin and United States envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. The pair were met by Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev at their plane on Thursday morning, before continuing to central Moscow. Talks with Putin began a few hours later.

Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said Ukrainians did not believe the talks in Moscow would yield results. “Over the past two days, we saw just another prisoner exchange, which has been the case in previous talks,” she said.

The Moscow meeting took place on the heels of two days of trilateral peace talks in the United Arab Emirates that concluded in the capital, Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday with news of another planned prisoner exchange but no breakthrough on ending the nearly five-year war.

The US said differences remained on major issues, including territory, but some progress had been made on post-war security guarantees.

Kyiv has strongly rejected Putin’s demands to surrender all of its eastern region of Donbas in ⁠return for peace, and the Abu Dhabi talks were the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the US in nine months.

During the US-backed effort to revive talks, leaders from more than 40 European countries gathered in Dublin on Thursday for a summit focused on the continent’s security.

The meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) brought together heads of state and government from the European Union and other European countries, including the United Kingdom. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also attended.

Rutte said the US, Europe and Ukraine are “very much aligned” on what security guarantees should look like, following a meeting in Paris in January. “But now of course we need the peace deal, or at least a ceasefire,” Rutte said.

Zelenskyy said political changes, including US Democrats’ recent midterm win in Congress and votes in France next year, could bring “a window of opportunity” for a peace deal.

The Ukrainian president called the proposed prisoner exchange a positive step but insisted Ukraine won’t surrender Russian-occupied territory in return for peace.

The EPC was established in 2022 as a forum for countries both inside and outside the 27-nation EU.

Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and Witkoff are scheduled to meet Zelenskyy in Dublin on Friday after talking to Putin.

Meanwhile, French minister delegate for European affairs Benjamin Haddad on Thursday ‌said the ⁠EU will approve more sanctions ⁠against Russia.

“On Monday, we will take new sanctions against ⁠Russia on 150 additional ⁠entities, 50 banks, and it’s ⁠France which proposed the ⁠bulk ⁠of the entities to add,” Haddad ‌told LCI television.

As talks continue, Russia launched ballistic missiles and dozens of combat drones at Ukraine overnight, killing one person, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.

A woman was killed and five people were injured when a drone hit a residential block in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. Of the 123 Russian combat drones used, 89 were shot down, the military said.

Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said ⁠Russian ⁠strikes on Ukraine’s ⁠energy infrastructure overnight ⁠caused power outages in nine ‌Ukrainian regions, namely ⁠Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, ⁠Zaporizhia, ⁠Odesa, Rivne, Sumy, Kharkiv ‌and Cherkasy.

⁠Separately, Ukraine’s ⁠military said it ⁠had struck Russia’s ⁠five largest oil refineries since October 30, ‌including those in Omsk, Kirishi, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl. In ⁠a post ⁠on Telegram, the General ⁠Staff said ⁠the smaller Novokuibyshevsk ⁠and Saratov refineries had also ‌been hit.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Investigative Committee said a Russian military serviceman was killed after ⁠the car he was driving was blown up in the Pushkinsky district of Saint Petersburg on Thursday.

Moscow has blamed Ukraine for previous assassinations of senior military officials and people linked to its ⁠war effort. There was no ⁠immediate comment from Ukraine about the latest incident.