Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Europe would participate directly in the next round of talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia.
According to AFP and the Ukrainian National News Agency, Zelensky said in a statement after meeting US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Irish capital Dublin on Thursday (12 November) that Europe would send representatives to participate directly in the next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia, and would have a say. “Given that the war is taking place in Europe, this is crucial.”
Zelensky said the trilateral talks in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi had “successfully broken the deadlock”. The main outcomes included the largest prisoner exchange, an agreement to continue negotiations and the inclusion of European representatives.
The two-day talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine ended on Wednesday (11 November). The parties reached an agreement on a large-scale prisoner exchange, but significant differences remained on key issues, including ending the conflict, territorial disputes, Ukraine’s security guarantees and Europe’s future security architecture.
Separately, Russia said its air defence forces intercepted and destroyed nearly 1,200 Ukrainian drones overnight on Friday (13 November) across more than 15 regions nationwide. It was one of Ukraine’s largest drone attacks and killed at least four people.
Local authorities in Russia’s southern Volgograd region said four workers were killed in the attack on an industrial zone that houses an oil refinery and chemical plants.
Ukrainian authorities said on Friday that attacks on the cities of Odesa and Kyiv and several areas of Donetsk had killed six people and injured 13. Ukraine’s air force reported that day that Russian forces had launched 117 drones between Thursday night and 7.30am on Friday, of which 80 were shot down or neutralised by Ukrainian air defences.
