Ukraine news: US envoys arrive in Moscow to meet Putin

Leaders from more than 40 European countries will gather in the Irish capital Dublin on Thursday for the European Political Community summit to discuss the security of the continent and Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also attend the meeting, alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

US mediators Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are also expected to visit Ireland, following their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The meeting, scheduled to begin at noon local time, is an opportunity for European leaders to discuss this week’s trilateral peace talks between Ukraine, the United States and Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine’s military faces new “systematic restrictions” over tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starshield satellite internet.

“Our units have been recording significant disruptions in Starshield operations on Ukrainian territory for several days,” Zelenskyy said in an online message.

The Ukrainian president added that “systematic speed restrictions” were being imposed and that these were not “random errors.”

“Unfortunately, this helps the Russians kill more Ukrainians and carry out more precise strikes against Ukraine.”

The Starshield military communications system – the military version of the Starlink satellite communications network – is operated by Musk’s SpaceX and plays a key role for frontline communications.

Ukraine first reported problems with Starshield last month after a dispute between Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump over a U.S. deal allowing more Russian diesel into global markets.

THE Wall Street Journal reported that Musk “limited the speeds at which Ukrainian hardware could remain connected to the satellite network.”

Both the tech billionaire and the US president denied limiting access to Ukraine, but Musk later accused Ukraine of using the service for military purposes while Trump said Musk had “put it back.”

Nearly half a million Russian soldiers may have been killed in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Can Russia continue to fight with such enormous human and economic costs?

Leaked documents, apparently obtained from Russia’s national statistics agency, Rosstat, identify more than 412,000 war-related deaths. British newspaper The guardian reports that the actual death toll may be closer to 500,000.

The complete data set has not been independently verified.

In some months, more than 500 Russian soldiers were killed every day. And the losses have disproportionately affected Russia’s poorest and most remote regions.

In this interview with DW News, Janis Kluge, head of the Eastern Europe and Eurasia research division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), examines what the leaked figures reveal about Russia’s military losses, the recruitment crisis and the war economy.

The leaked data comes as US-brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine end in Abu Dhabi without any progress being made to end the war.

Both sides agreed to a prisoner exchange, but fundamental disagreements remain. Could rising Russian casualties eventually force Putin to compromise, or make him even more determined to continue the war?

A Russian soldier was killed in a car explosion in St. Petersburg, the AFP news agency reported, citing the local investigative committee.

The cause of the explosion in the Pushkin district is not yet known.

“An investigation into the murder of a soldier has been opened,” the commission of inquiry said in a statement.

Russian state news agency TASS reported a car explosion in the same neighborhood and cited a law enforcement spokesman as saying the “car exploded” as it was leaving a courtyard.

According to the spokesperson, the man was alone inside the car and no one else was injured.

American mediators Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and special envoy Steve Witkoff have arrived in Moscow, according to Russian news agencies.

“At Vnukovo airport, the special envoys of the American President Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were greeted by the special representative of the Russian President Kirill Dmitriev,” the Interfax news agency reported.

“Welcome Steve and Jared to Moscow,” Dmitriev said on X, alongside a photo of himself shaking Witkoff’s hand with Kushner at his side.

The two men were in the United Arab Emirates over the past two days for trilateral peace talks.

“One of the positive things is that we have agreed that we are going to do the largest humanitarian release of prisoners, the numbers for which we will finalize tomorrow,” Kushner said after the end of the Abu Dhabi talks.

Kushner and Witkoff are expected to address the issue of including European partners in the current trilateral format.

After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kushner and Witkoff are expected to travel to Ireland, where they will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Attacks continued overnight between Russia and Ukraine, part of efforts to end Moscow’s ongoing invasion.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that it had targeted military and energy facilities in Ukraine, as well as an ammunition depot.
warehouse in the capital Kyiv.

The Reuters news agency reported that explosions were heard in kyiv early in the morning, citing a witness, while a local official said energy and civil infrastructure had been damaged in the Rivne region.

Separately, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russia had shot down five drones heading toward the capital.

Drones were also reportedly shot down in other Russian regions, including Rostov and Tula.

Efforts to broker peace amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine continue with U.S. mediators currently in Moscow.

Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to meet with the Russian president before possibly traveling to Dublin, where they would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is participating in the European meetings.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said there could be a “window of opportunity” to end the fighting, even if efforts to broker peace take place amid continued hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.

Two days of talks in the United Arab Emirates failed to produce major progress, but the two sides agreed on a new prisoner exchange.

Follow the latest developments on the peace talks and other news on the war in Ukraine here.