New round of trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine agreed after Putin meeting, Witkoff says
Russian news agencies are reporting further comments from US envoy Steve Witkoff after his meeting with Putin earlier today.
Witkoff reportedly said a new round of trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine had been agreed, with Europeans also set to join the meeting.
I’ll bring you the full quotes as soon as we have them.
Key events
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Closing summary
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‘I think progress was made today,’ Witkoff tells CNN
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Witkoff, Kushner en route to Dublin to meet with Zelenskyy
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Kremlin welcomes useful talks with US on Ukraine, says process will be continued
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Italy’s anti-vax medics eye return to frontline duty
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New round of trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine agreed after Putin meeting, Witkoff says
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UK drone maker founded by Ukrainians hits £4.5bn value after raising £500m
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Former pro-Russian presidential contender Georgescu indicted on fraud charges
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Putin’s maximalist rhetoric once again suggests no plans to compromise to end war – snap analysis
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Leading aviation figures express uneased at Europe’s response to last week’s bomb threats
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Another wave of false bomb alarms across Italy, targeting schools, PM’s office
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Reports of Starshield disruptions in Ukraine ‘deeply concerning and, if confirmed, unacceptable,’ EU says
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Putin wants US to work with Europe ‘so they can decide what they want, peace or war,’ Russian media report
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Putin’s meeting with US envoys get under way
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine destroyed Europe’s security infrastructure, EU’s Costa says
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‘All depends on the Russians, whether they are willing to play ball, Nato’s Rutte says
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Zelenskyy criticises return of Starshield speed restrictions
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Zelenskyy cautions against ‘strange’ approach to resetting Europe’s security relations with Russia
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‘Long past time for Russia to stop this immoral war,’ Ireland’s Martin says
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Europe needs to agree on ‘what it wants, both for Ukraine and for itself’ on security, Macron says
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Kushner’s challenge to Europe adds urgency to discussion on who should speak for Europe – snap analysis
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Zelenskyy arrives at EPC summit in Dublin
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Supporting Ukraine ‘a collective European responsibility’, Merz says
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von der Leyen ‘very much welcomes’ Abu Dhabi talks, confirms work on new sanctions package
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EU’s Kallas warns there is no ‘good will’ from Russia as attacks on Ukraine continue
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Luxembourg’s PM Frieden backs EU’s Costa to represent Europe in Ukraine talks
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Train traffic resumes through Calais station after earlier bomb scare
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US envoys arrive at the Kremlin for talks with Putin
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Heightened security measures in Dublin with ‘largest deployment in history’
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EU needs a ‘clear, coherent’ leadership voice in Ukraine talks, Ireland’s Martin says
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Bomb alert at Calais-Fréthun train station causes delays on domestic, cross channel services
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Ukraine faces ‘systemic speed restrictions’ on Starshield again that ‘help Russians kill more Ukrainians’, Zelenskyy says
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EU to approve new sanctions on Russia on Monday, France’s Europe minister says
Closing summary
Jakub Krupa
And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today.
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US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are on their way to Dublin to meet with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (18:04) after their talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow earlier today (14:16, 14:41, 17:28, 17:49).
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During the meeting, the leaders discussed Russia’s key demands when it comes to the peace process and agreed to hold another round of talks on Ukraine war, reportedly adding Europeans to the table (16:59).
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But during the meeting Putin struck a notably tough tone repeating many of his maximalist demands that are unlikely to be acceptable to Ukraine or Europe (15:24).
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Separately, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warned against “strange” attempts agree on “a new security framework between Europe and Russia,” and urged European leaders to “pay attention” to what is being proposed (13:04).
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He also revealed that Starshield systems, which play a critical role for Ukraine’s army, appeared to be throttled again, disrupting its ability to defend itself from Russian attacks (10:08, 13:07).
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
‘I think progress was made today,’ Witkoff tells CNN
Speaking to CNN and Russian media on departure from Moscow, Witkoff said:
“I think progress was made today. … I think it was made earlier today. Abu Dhabi was, people didn’t think that we were going to restart trilateral. We’ve restarted it; we’ve set a new meeting now on top of that, and this is what President Trump wants to see.”
Witkoff, Kushner en route to Dublin to meet with Zelenskyy
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have left Moscow en route for Dublin where they are going to meet with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ireland’s public broadcaster RTÉ reported.
Flightradar24 records show that they are now in fact in Helsinki, Finland and they are expected to continue the trip to Ireland shortly.
Your guess is as good as mine as to whether they are in the Finnish capital just to refuel their plane or perhaps they are catching up with Finland’s influential president Alexander Stubb, who play an important role in the peace process behind the scenes.
Kremlin welcomes useful talks with US on Ukraine, says process will be continued
The Kremlin said that talks between Russian president Vladimir Putin and two US envoys had been useful and that the American side had supported Putin’s proposal for a joint humanitarian mission to a city in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin aide, said Putin would continue discussions on Ukraine with US president Donald Trump at an Apec summit in China later this month and that direct peace talks with Ukraine, which resumed this week after a pause of 9 months, would continue.
Ushakov said that Russia had made clear to the US envoys that Nato could not expand further and expressed hope that Europe would support talks on a new European security architecture.
Italy’s anti-vax medics eye return to frontline duty
Angela Giuffrida
in Rome
A controversial bill approved in October in the lower house of Italy’s parliament includes measures that allow healthcare workers who were struck off their professional registers during the pandemic for serious violations connected to their anti-vaccination beliefs – for example, promoting treatments that lacked a scientific basis – to apply to be reinstated.
The bill is being championed by the prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and is strongly backed by its far-right coalition partner, the League.
But with allies in Forza Italia split, its approval in the lower house hinged on support from National Future (FN), a rival far-right force led by the former army general Roberto Vannacci, whose emergence is shaping the political landscape before general elections next year. Vannacci has voiced opposition to vaccine mandates, and his rhetoric frequently targets the vaccine-sceptic audience.
The measure still needs to clear the senate, with a vote scheduled in January. But its progress has alarmed medical experts, less because of the number of healthcare workers involved – it is believed to be very small – and more because of the risk of further eroding trust in vaccines.
Nearly one in two Italian adults are hesitant about vaccination, according to a report by the department of public health and paediatric sciences at the University of Turin published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe in February. The report, which sampled 50,000 adults across Italy, found the ambivalence was driven more by misinformation and lack of institutional trust than by fears over vaccine safety.
Here’s the full quote from Witkoff, via Reuters:
“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.”
New round of trilateral talks with Russia, Ukraine agreed after Putin meeting, Witkoff says
Russian news agencies are reporting further comments from US envoy Steve Witkoff after his meeting with Putin earlier today.
Witkoff reportedly said a new round of trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine had been agreed, with Europeans also set to join the meeting.
I’ll bring you the full quotes as soon as we have them.
UK drone maker founded by Ukrainians hits £4.5bn value after raising £500m
Jasper Jolly
Meanwhile, a London-based naval drone maker founded by Ukrainians has reached a £4.5bn valuation after it raised more than £500m from investors including the UK government.
UForce, which makes military drones for land, air and sea, received £113m from the UK’s national wealth fund. The investment makes UForce one of the UK’s fastest-growing unicorns – or startups with a valuation of more than $1bn. Its drones have been used extensively in the war in Ukraine.
The UK defence secretary, Wes Streeting, met the UForce chief executive, Oleg Rogynskyy, on Thursday onboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales during a defence conference in Oslo, Norway.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence noted UForce’s maritime capabilities in particular, amid concerns over the increasing threat from Russia in the north Atlantic and North Sea. Russian naval vessels and its “shadow fleet” have been accused of sabotage and spying operations on cables and pipelines, while the UK is planning a fleet of sea-borne drones in the northern seas to track Russia’s nuclear submarine fleet.
Streeting on Thursday piloted a UForce MV7 uncrewed vessel located more than 1,500 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean near Portugal.
Former pro-Russian presidential contender Georgescu indicted on fraud charges
Meanwhiel, Romanian prosecutors said on Thursday they had indicted Călin Georgescu, the pro-Russian former frontrunner in the country’s 2024 cancelled presidential election, on charges of orchestrating a €1.1m fraud scheme.
Prosecutors said Georgescu managed an organised crime group that prompted a Romanian businessman to give them €1.1m by making him believe they could help him get a credit line of up to €15m from a foreign financial institution, Reuters reported.
Georgescu has been in pretrial detention since late September. In posts on Georgescu’s Facebook account, his wife, Cristela Georgescu, denied the charges and said they were politically motivated.
Putin’s maximalist rhetoric once again suggests no plans to compromise to end war – snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
Vladimir Putin’s comments during his meeting with the two US envoys make it clear that getting a deal with Russia will not be easy.
During his talks with Witkoff and Kushner, the Russian president doubled down on his demand to retain the Russia-occupied Ukrainian territory and opposed any foreign peacekeeping troops in the country – a key part of Europe’s planned security guarantees for Kyiv.
Instead, he continues to push for broader talks on rolling back Europe’s post-1997 Nato security architecture, a move which Zelenskyy called “strange” and urged Europe to watch closely.
Putin’s proposal for “a humanitarian mission” in Kostyantynivka is likely to be seen by Europeans as merely a token gesture designed to distract from his otherwise hardline stance.
As our Russia expert, Pjotr Sauer, said after yesterday’s discussions: “Russia appears to be seeking to revive demands it presented to Nato in 2021,” with maximalist conditions on future enlargement and deployments.
