Dublin becomes centre of Ukraine discussions as EU leaders meet

Detailed summary

For a couple of hours on Thursday Dublin became the centre of the great diplomatic dance that has stopped and started over the last two years around negotiations to bring an end…

For a couple of hours on Thursday Dublin became the centre of the great diplomatic dance that has stopped and started over the last two years around negotiations to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

Both Moscow and Kyiv are trying to convince the Trump administration the other poses the real block to a peace settlement, while privately placing little faith in the prospect of talks leading anywhere.

Meanwhile, Europe’s leaders in the Convention Centre seemed no closer to a consensus on who would represent their interests, in the event they (finally) got a seat at the negotiating table.

The US double act charged with leading talks to end the war, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, were scheduled to shuttle from a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, to Dublin to huddle with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Efforts to prompt Russia and Ukraine towards a deal ending the brutal conflict restarted in Abu Dhabi this week.

The Ukrainian delegation privately briefed European allies afterwards that they did not get any sense Moscow was genuinely interested in peace negotiations, according to senior sources privy to that readout.

Russia has been pounding cities and energy infrastructure to turn the screw as Ukraine heads into the fifth winter of war.

Kyiv is short of money, lacking Patriot interceptors to shoot down Russian missiles, and dealing with another slowdown in Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite connection it relies on to defend itself from Russian attack drones.

Despite all that, Zelenskiy insisted the position along the front line remained strong.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.