WASHINGTON — The White House aims to use this week’s talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials in part to persuade Moscow to agree to broader negotiations that would include key European officials on how to end nearly five years of war, U.S. officials said.
President Trump’s aides Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are slated to meet in the United Arab Emirates with officials from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, NATO and the European Union. They will discuss potential security guarantees and the long-term security architecture between Russia and Europe before the U.S. negotiators’ scheduled talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials on Tuesday and Wednesday, the officials said.
Russia has resisted European participation in negotiations and insisted the talks should proceed strictly as a trilateral format involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States. The three last held talks in February.
But one of the U.S. officials, who briefed reporters before the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the Republican administration believes “very strongly that at this point, in order to end the war, you really need to have Europe at the table.”
If talks go well this week in Abu Dhabi, Witkoff and Kushner could soon travel to Moscow and Kyiv to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the official told reporters.
The Abu Dhabi talks come as Russia continued to batter Ukraine’s power grid again Monday and as Ukrainian forces hit another of Russia’s biggest oil refineries.
The two countries remain locked in battle with no sign that either side is ready to budge from their demands. The war has already killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and humanitarian organizations say.
Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday that Moscow and Kyiv are “very close” to a deal despite “tremendous hatred” between Putin and Zelensky.
He said Ukraine would have “a little bit different shape” under the settlement, but he didn’t elaborate.
Trump previously made statements about developments in the war that haven’t materialized.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Trump’s team has placed “collective security,” covering not just Russia and Ukraine but also a wider area, at the top of the agenda.
The last three-way talks, in Geneva nine months ago, also took place as attacks continued. The negotiations delivered no significant progress in ending the war, but some circumstances have changed.
Trump, whose stance on the war has varied, has to reckon with Democrats taking over Congress in January after the U.S. midterm elections. Democrats could demand more support for Ukraine.
Blann and Madhani write for the Associated Press. Blann reported from Kyiv. Farnoush Amir in New York and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
Source: www.latimes.com
