'Big development' in peace talks as Ukraine says Europe to join Russia negotiations

On Thursday, U.S. envoys met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin before heading to Ireland for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. After the talks, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said that significant differences remain. However, he's encouraged by progress, notably that both sides have agreed to expand the next round of talks to include European nations as Washington works toward the war's largest prisoner exchange. Andrew Hillier joins us from our international desk. Hello to you, Andrew. Bring us up to speed with the latest Well, I think the most significant diplomatic development late last night was Volodymyr Zelensky saying alongside those U.S. envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, that Europe would be given a seat at the next round of peace talks. We don't know when those peace talks will be. Thank you. Thank you. But that is a big development. Of course, Europe has been pushing for a long time since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to have a seat at the table. The Americans, too, have been pushing recently for Europe to have a seat at the table. They say a peace deal will not be possible unless Europe... ...is directly involved in negotiations. Moscow, however, has been consistently trying to reframe or package Europe taking part in negotiations alongside a wider discussion about Europe's security... Russia is repeatedly saying that European security arrangements need to be reshaped. What's the reaction been here in Europe? Well, most European leaders on Thursday have roundly rejected this push from Russia to reframe the discussions along those lines. European Council President Antonio Costa saying that there was no need to reinvent the wheel because Europe's security architecture worked until Russia, until it was gradually destroyed by Russia, he said. Now, what officials from Moscow have been saying repeatedly is that... They want a ban on NATO expansion further east. They want an end to NATO military drills on its eastern flank. And they want NATO to withdraw troops and equipment from its eastern flank. Of course, what... People in European capitals are saying is that that is an attempt by Russia to restore its former sphere of influence and to infringe on the sovereignty of NATO and EU member states. Now, there are also reports that have been reports this week that Russia, Russian officials have said they would be willing to conclude non-aggression pacts with individual NATO member states. Of course, if that were to happen, then that could potentially undermine the cohesiveness of NATO. And of course, European leaders, Kaja Kallas, the EU's chief diplomat, has said all along that there can be no negotiations about Europe's wider security architecture before a peace deal is agreed. And at the same time, we're seeing more pressure on Europe to name a single figure to represent it at any future peace negotiations. Any progress on naming a special representative? In a nutshell, no, no progress on that. Europe's interaction with Russia, Ukraine and the US has been quite chaotic, it must be said. We saw earlier this week during those talks in Abu Dhabi, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU all sending delegations to those talks. Jared Kushner was quite blunt on Thursday. He said that it would be more of an achievement. If Europe came up with a name, with a special representative to represent itself, that would be more of an achievement than actually having a spot, a seat at the peace talks. And you can also, speaking to EU officials, you also get a sense that there is a lack of urgency. One EU official telling the Financial Times that while it was important to have one messenger delivering the message, it was more important to have a cohesive message, one single message, even if it comes from Europe.