Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday (November 12) welcomed news that Europeans would be present at the next round of US-brokered peace talks with Russia, and expressed hope that the agenda would include steps towards ceasefires and de-escalating the conflict.

Zelenskiy, speaking after talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said it was important that the peace process had restarted, following the first talks in nine months earlier this week in Abu Dhabi.

"It has unblocked a relevant meeting ," Zelenskiy said, after meeting the US envoys whilst in Dublin to attend a European summit.

Earlier on Thursday, Witkoff had announced a new round of talks would take place soon involving European officials, after he and Kushner met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

DUBLIN, IRELAND (NOVEMBER 12, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all) (NIGHT SHOTS)

1. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW JARED KUSHNER, AND SPECIAL ENVOY STEVE WITKOFF, STEPPING OUTSIDE TO SPEAK WITH MEDIA AFTER MEETING

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, SAYING:

"Just had talks with our American partners and first of all I want to say thank you so much for all our NSAs and all our groups in Abu Dhabi. They had progress. We talked about it. So first of all, it has unblocked a relevant meeting and it's very important because it gives hope that we will end this war, that after this meeting there will be another meeting and each meeting has to give results and bring us closer to this. The second, but maybe the first, the result is very important. And now after Russia, the American team accepted also that we will have exchange of POWs. It will be the biggest, as Steve and Jared told me, the biggest exchange of war prisoners and these guys and our soldiers will come home. So I'm very thankful to all our negotiators. This is real result. It's very important. This is successful."

3. WHITE FLASH

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, SAYING:

"The American side, the American group made progress with Europeans. This is important, that Europeans next time, next meeting Europe will be at the negotiation team, in, not sideways, not separately. They will have a voice. This is important for us because the war is in Europe."

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW, JARED KUSHNER, SAYING:

"We had a very, very good discussion on what fronts we're able to finalize on the prisoner of war exchange which is a very important thing but obviously the human, a lot of people are being impacted by this war to return these thousands of people to their families, I think will be a very nice milestone to achieve. We've also been working very, very closely over the past several months with Europeans. And I think that that's been very important. If not conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table, we've been telling President Putin that we believe that's very important and that President Zelenskiy has been a very strong supporter. He's been saying that from the very, very beginning. And I think that we're able to achieve that with President Putin and he's willing to give it a try."

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW, JARED KUSHNER, SAYING:

"A big, big conversation has been about the post-war security with Ukraine and really for the region to make sure that what happens after this war doesn't happen again."

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) US SPECIAL ENVOY, STEVE WITKOFF, SAYING:

"We had a very, very good and positive meeting in the UAE. We're gonna have the largest, as we've talked about, the largest hostage (prisoner) release. But most importantly, President Trump is intent on meeting the charge to end this war. That's the instructions to me and Jared. That's why we're here tonight. That's why we flew here tonight to meet the President directly and tell him directly to report to you, sir, on some of the positive results that we can achieve. We've got another meeting on schedule, and we're all going to work very, very hard to get to that goal."

9. ZELENSKIY, KUSHNER, AND WITKOFF LEAVING