Kushner wants direct Russia-Europe talks in Ukraine peace push

Kevin Whitelaw, Bloomberg News on Nov 14, 2026

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Jared Kushner, the U.S. president’s son-in-law who has been serving as a negotiator with Russia and Ukraine, said the Trump administration wants to see direct talks between Moscow and U.S. allies in Europe.

Russia has recently begun demanding a discussion with Europe over security arrangements on the continent, which has divided members of the European Union. Moscow has made it a precondition of the renewed U.S.-led talks with Ukraine, Bloomberg has reported.

Following meetings earlier in the week that he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff held with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kushner said a peace deal between the two countries could not be completed without European involvement.

“Our focus now is on facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the agenda for the next round of trilateral talks,” Kushner said Saturday in a post on X.

The Kremlin has long claimed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s expansion into eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union is a threat to Russian security — citing it as one of the main reasons for its invasion of Ukraine.

E.U. leaders discussed the push for engaging with Russia on Friday during a summit in Dublin.

“If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we are actually walking into the traps that Russia is setting,” Kaja Kallas, the E.U.’s top diplomat, said as she arrived for the gathering.

Kushner said that any peace would require security guarantees for Ukraine and postwar security arrangements to reduce the risk of another war.

“NATO will remain a critical pillar of European security, enhanced by stronger mechanisms for military, communication, deconfliction, and reciprocal de-escalation, with practical ways to address disputes before they become crises,” Kushner said. “This is why we are working to bring our European partners directly into these discussions.”