Key facts
- Kushner said the US focus is facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the next trilateral talks agenda.
- Two days of US-brokered talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi ended without a breakthrough on a broader ceasefire or peace agreement.
- Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff met separately with Zelensky and Putin after the Abu Dhabi talks.
- Zelensky said a new American proposal would grant Ukraine NATO membership in exchange for withdrawing from territory it still controls.
- Kushner said NATO will remain a critical pillar of European security and credible security guarantees for Ukraine.
US envoy Jared Kushner said on November 14 that Washington is focused on facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and on preparing the agenda for the next round of trilateral Ukraine talks. He made the statement in a post on the social media platform X, after two days of US-brokered talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi ended without a breakthrough on a broader ceasefire or peace agreement.
Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff met separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin following the Abu Dhabi talks. Kushner said several new ideas emerged from the discussions and are being explored, adding that some may lead to breakthroughs directly while others may evolve into new proposals that help bridge the remaining gaps. He also said NATO will remain a critical pillar of European security and of credible security guarantees for Ukraine.
On November 13, Zelensky told journalists that a new American proposal under discussion would see Ukraine granted NATO membership in exchange for withdrawing from territories it still controls. He said the Americans raised the question of whether Ukraine would withdraw from Donbas if it joined NATO, and that this was the first time the issue had been raised. The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which were first partially occupied by Russia in 2014 and which Russian forces have not managed to fully capture.