Ukraine peace talks: US envoys meet with Putin at Kremlin

The US president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff are in Russia to meet Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes after two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi.

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin. A prisoner exchange was agreed after 2 days of talks in Abu Dhabi. Continued strikes reported between Russian and Ukraine overnight.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner discussed their trip to Abu Dhabi this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Russian state media RIA Novosti, Witkoff said US President Donald Trump was "seeking to end the conflict in Ukraine as quickly as possible."

The three-way talks in Abu Dhabi between the US, Ukraine and Russia were held "in a positive atmosphere" and that the Ukrainian and Russian delegations had "worked effectively," Ria Novosti reported. Witkoff said he would convey the results of his and Kushner's meeting with Putin to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kushner, for his part, said the US had begun discussions with European countries on the post-war "security architecture" on the continent. He also said Europe wanted to be involved in the talks to end the conflict, RIA Novosti reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a "humanitarian mission" to the frontline city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media reported. Putin made the remarks during a meeting at the Kremlin on Thursday with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Ria Novosti said. "There's a village in Donbas called Kostyantynivka, where there are still about 400-500 civilians. Let's do the same thing we did in Oleshky and invite representatives of the foreign press, including the American press," he said, referring to the recent US-brokered evacuation of the Russia-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine. According to RIA Novosti, Putin also repeated Russia's demands in a potential peace deal, including its refusal to accept any foreign troops in Ukraine. The Russian leader warned that international peacekeepers in Ukraine would become a "legitimate target for the Russian army."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Russian side is becoming more willing to accept a European seat in the trilateral talks. Merz said he expected Putin to agree to Europeans getting a seat at the table in talks with Ukraine. He was speaking on the sidelines of the European Political Community meeting in Dublin. He added that getting Putin to negotiate is more important than naming who would be the European envoy. "The important thing is that Russia comes to the table and that Russia is ready to talk," the German chancellor said.

Ukraine's military said on Thursday it has hit Russia's five largest oil refineries since October 30. Those struck were the Omsk, Kirishi, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl refineries, along with the smaller Novokuibyshevsk and Saratov refineries, the General Staff said in a Telegram post. The statement claimed that the strikes on key refining units are shrinking revenues that help Russia fund the war. Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that military strikes on Russian energy infrastructure would resume, despite US President Donald Trump's insistence that such attacks stop.

Leaders from more than 40 European countries will gather in the Irish capital Dublin on Thursday for the European Political Community summit to discuss the continent's security and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend the meeting, along with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. US mediators, Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff are also expected to make their way to Ireland, after their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine's military faced new "systematic restrictions" to tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starshield satellite internet. "Our units have been recording significant disruptions to Starshield's operations over the territory of Ukraine for several days now," Zelenskyy said in an online post. The Ukrainian president added that "systematic speed restrictions" were being imposed and that these are not "random errors."

Nearly half a million Russian soldiers may have been killed in Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. Leaked records reportedly obtained from Russia's state statistics agency, Rosstat, identify more than 412,000 deaths linked to the war. British newspaper The Guardian reports that the true death toll could be closer to 500,000. The full dataset has not been independently verified.

A Russian soldier has been killed in a car explosion in Saint Petersburg, the AFP news agency reported, citing the local Investigative Committee. The cause of the blast in the Pushkinsky District is not yet known. "An investigation into the murder of a military serviceman has been opened," the Investigative Committee said in a press release.

US mediators, Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff have arrived in Moscow, according to Russian news agencies. "At Vnukovo [Airport], US President's special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were met by Russian President's special representative Kirill Dmitriev," Interfax news agency said. "One of the positives is we agreed that we're going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we're going to finalize the numbers tomorrow," Kushner said after the Abu Dhabi talks ended.

There have been continued overnight attacks between Russia and Ukraine amid efforts to bring an end to Moscow's ongoing invasion. Russia's Defense Ministry said on Telegram that it had targeted military and energy facilities in Ukraine, as well as a munitions warehouse in the capital Kyiv. Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russia had shot down five drones heading towards the capital.