Kremlin Pours Cold Water On Europe Joining Talks Amid Kushner-Witkoff Visit
This is not what the Trump administration wanted to see after this week's Abu Dhabi trilateral talks, and as the team of Kushner-Witkoff, Trump's special envoys, are in Moscow where they met with President Vladimir Putin.
Putin's aide and representative to the talks, Yuri Ushakov, batted down Western efforts to get the Europeans at the table. He said that the Europeans need to decide between "peace" or "war" - in reference to Europe's drive to keep up maximum military support to Kyiv even as the US shows signs of backing off the intensity of assistance.
EuroNews writes, "Moscow has long equated Europe to a warring party due to the provision of weapons and ammunition that allies have sent to Kyiv."
"So far, all their practical actions point precisely to the latter," Ushakov said.
via Reuters
EuroNews also concluded, "After Steve Witkoff raised hopes that Europeans and Russians would soon sit at the same time, Moscow minimized the prospect and said Europe should cease military support for Ukraine."
Witkoff and Kushner while in Moscow reporteldy sought Putin's consent for Europeans to join what would be a multilateral format.
"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 reporters.
Kushner's take was that the talks were "very fulsome and detailed" on all the topics and expressed the Western desire that all of this would "hopefully" feed into a multilateral format.
Still, Putin aide lauded Trump administration efforts, per an official readout:
For Russia, a "longterm settlement" means nothing less than full political recognition over the four eastern terrirtories and of course Crimea.
Zelensky has consistently rejected the prospected of a major land swap. He's lobbied the EU and NATO to keep up Kiev's maximal demands.
Moscow seems content with drawing out the process for as long is it takes, per another TASS readout:
Pro-Ukraine pundits not happy at these developments...
And so it remains clear that the Russian approach is to ultimately see things settled on the ground and in the battlefield regarding the 'special military operation' - despite immense troop losses on both sides.
Tyler Durden Thu, 11/12/2026 - 22:10
Continue reading...
[ H/T ZeroHedge ]
This is not what the Trump administration wanted to see after this week's Abu Dhabi trilateral talks, and as the team of Kushner-Witkoff, Trump's special envoys, are in Moscow where they met with President Vladimir Putin.
Putin's aide and representative to the talks, Yuri Ushakov, batted down Western efforts to get the Europeans at the table. He said that the Europeans need to decide between "peace" or "war" - in reference to Europe's drive to keep up maximum military support to Kyiv even as the US shows signs of backing off the intensity of assistance.
EuroNews writes, "Moscow has long equated Europe to a warring party due to the provision of weapons and ammunition that allies have sent to Kyiv."
"So far, all their practical actions point precisely to the latter," Ushakov said.
via Reuters
EuroNews also concluded, "After Steve Witkoff raised hopes that Europeans and Russians would soon sit at the same time, Moscow minimized the prospect and said Europe should cease military support for Ukraine."
Witkoff and Kushner while in Moscow reporteldy sought Putin's consent for Europeans to join what would be a multilateral format.
"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 reporters.
Kushner's take was that the talks were "very fulsome and detailed" on all the topics and expressed the Western desire that all of this would "hopefully" feed into a multilateral format.
Still, Putin aide lauded Trump administration efforts, per an official readout:
For Russia, a "longterm settlement" means nothing less than full political recognition over the four eastern terrirtories and of course Crimea.
Zelensky has consistently rejected the prospected of a major land swap. He's lobbied the EU and NATO to keep up Kiev's maximal demands.
Moscow seems content with drawing out the process for as long is it takes, per another TASS readout:
Pro-Ukraine pundits not happy at these developments...
And so it remains clear that the Russian approach is to ultimately see things settled on the ground and in the battlefield regarding the 'special military operation' - despite immense troop losses on both sides.
Tyler Durden Thu, 11/12/2026 - 22:10
Continue reading...
[ H/T ZeroHedge ]
