US cannot reach a deal to end Ukraine war without Europe, says Kushner

{"text":[[{"start":0,"text":"The US cannot reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine without Europe’s involvement, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Thursday after separate meetings with Russia and Ukraine’s leaders."}],[{"start":26.12,"text":"“We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” Kushner said late on Thursday, adding that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to give European involvement “a try”."}],[{"start":38.36,"text":"Kushner was speaking alongside fellow US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following their meeting at Ireland’s Casement Aerodrome west of Dublin, hours after the American diplomats met Putin in Moscow."}],[{"start":53.762,"text":"Zelenskyy said US officials had made progress on securing Europe a voice in the talks. Witkoff said another meeting had been scheduled but did not offer further details on the format or when it would take place."}],[{"start":64.9,"text":"Later on Thursday, Kushner said in a post on social media that Russia and Ukraine had “now agreed to expand the next round of negotiations to include our European partners”."}],[{"start":75.16,"text":"Moscow has yet to confirm that it has agreed to have European officials participate in future negotiations."}],[{"start":81.4,"text":"The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week at peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the Kremlin’s delegation had refused to meet European officials."}],[{"start":92.7,"text":"Kushner’s remarks come after European leaders rejected Putin’s push to overhaul the continent’s security architecture as part of Ukraine peace talks."}],[{"start":100.76,"text":"“There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” said European Council president António Costa, who hosted the Ukrainian president and other European leaders in Dublin on Thursday. “Europe had a functioning European security architecture until it was first gradually undermined and, ultimately, destroyed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”"}],[{"start":120.44,"text":"Zelenskyy said the discussions in Abu Dhabi had involved “a lot of talk about security guarantees”, adding that “Europe really needs to pay attention”."}],[{"start":128.682,"text":"A US official on Thursday said Washington had asked Moscow for its view on what a stable postwar security environment would look like. “This was an effort to understand both sides’ positions and identify possible areas of common ground, not a request for Russia to draft a new European security architecture,” they said."}],[{"start":147.56,"text":"“Any broader security arrangements would be developed in close consultation and partnership with Ukraine and our European allies,” they added."}],[{"start":156.52,"text":"Moscow’s officials have repeatedly said the continent’s security arrangements need to be redesigned — meaning a ban on further Nato expansion, and on military drills near the Russian border, as well as withdrawing troops and military equipment from Nato’s eastern flank."}],[{"start":170.8,"text":"These demands have been interpreted in many European capitals as the Kremlin attempting to restore its sphere of influence and infringe on the national sovereignty of EU and Nato members."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":181.8,"text":"Putin on Thursday said Moscow’s proposals for a new security architecture needed to be discussed before an end to the war was agreed."}],[{"start":189.64,"text":"“What do we hear from the Europeans? No, only after peace in Ukraine. But they are planning to send troops there after peace in Ukraine. That’s continuing the war,” Putin said."}],[{"start":200.02,"text":"Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Putin, later on Thursday said: “The current system does not work. That’s obvious to everyone. And we hope that European countries will support working on the outlines of a new long-term architecture of non-nuclear security and peace, which we are immediately ready to start on in tandem with the US.”"}],[{"start":220.2,"text":"Ushakov said the Kremlin’s key terms were a ban on Nato expansion and deploying “weapons systems at the Russian border that threaten us”, as well as a “return to the configuration of alliance forces at the moment the Nato-Russia founding act was signed” in the 1990s."}],[{"start":234.68,"text":"A US official said Kushner and Witkoff had “a constructive and substantive discussion” with Putin in Moscow that built on the Abu Dhabi talks."}],[{"start":242.92,"text":"“The discussions focused on potential pathways to ending the war, addressing the security concerns of both sides and establishing the conditions for a durable peace."}],[{"start":252.04,"text":"Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s lead negotiator, told state television after the Abu Dhabi talks that Russia wanted to create “a new comprehensive European security system that will serve as a new Yalta and Potsdam”, replacing the global order established after the second world war."}],[{"start":269.52,"text":"Three officials told the FT that there was rising nervousness around European capitals that agreeing to discussions on wider continental defence and security issues would be the price of getting a seat at the negotiations over Ukraine, something they had spent five years refusing to do."}],[{"start":285.4,"text":"Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, said Europe should only be prepared to begin talks on the continent’s security architecture after the Kremlin agrees a peace deal."}],[{"start":295.36,"text":"“Right now, taking the focus to the European security architecture is actually diverting the attention away from where it actually should be, which is ceasefire stopping the killing in Ukraine,” Kallas said."}],[{"start":306.8,"text":"The unease over European security negotiations among the continent’s leaders has added to pressure to finalise a protracted debate over who should represent the region in any possible negotiations."}],[{"start":318.72,"text":"European leaders will continue to debate that issue in Dublin in the hope of finding a name this month."}],[{"start":324.64,"text":"Europe’s interaction with US and Ukrainian negotiators, and ad hoc outreach to Putin, has been unpredictable and at times incoherent. Britain, France, Germany and Italy, plus the EU, all sent delegations to meetings on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi talks this week."}],[{"start":345.24,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794540007_2928.mp3"}