🕊️ US envoys shuttle between Putin and Zelensky as Ukraine talks continue
After meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner flew to Dublin to see Volodymyr Zelensky, with a new round of three-way talks agreed.
The mystery
The war has gone on since Russia launched its all-out invasion in 2022, and talks have moved from Abu Dhabi to Moscow and now Dublin. Is a deal getting any closer?
The answer
Witkoff says Putin has accepted that European negotiators will join the next round. But the biggest gap is still land: Putin insists the only acceptable dividing line is the state border, while Russia's demands on territory and neutrality still go far beyond what Kyiv will accept. Putin also proposed a five-day humanitarian truce around Kostyantynivka in Donetsk to evacuate civilians; Kyiv disputes that Russia controls the town. Meanwhile Zelensky says Ukrainian troops again face limits on Starshield, SpaceX's military satellite service, which makes Russian drones harder to stop.
Now think about this
Can peace talks make progress while the fighting, and the technology behind it, keeps changing on the ground?
