Ukraine launched 1,198 drones at Russian targets in an overnight barrage that marked one of its largest aerial operations of the conflict.
The massive assault arrived alongside high-stakes negotiations in Abu Dhabi, where U.S. and Russian envoys expanded talks to include wider European security arrangements that have stood since the end of the Cold War. That shift alarmed European leaders and put a question mark over the future role of the NATO military alliance.
“Russia wants to talk about questions of European security architecture. We don’t need to talk about that. There is one,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, referring to NATO.
Following two days of discussions with Ukrainian and Russian delegations this week, U.S. representatives Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff conducted in-person briefings with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was attending a meeting with European leaders in Dublin, Ireland. Kushner said that Russia agreed to include Europe in upcoming discussions, reversing Moscow’s long-standing insistence that continental governments be excluded.
Europe’s presence at the negotiating table will allow negotiators “to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner said on X.
While European leaders scrambled to find an envoy for the talks, they remained wary of Russian maneuvering, U.S. praise for Putin, and the administration’s sharp criticism of Europe. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, insisted in Dublin that Europe must demand a ceasefire before taking negotiations further — the opposite of what Putin demands.
“If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us,” Kallas said.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden insisted that Europe must take its fate into its own hands. “We cannot let neither the Americans nor the Russians decide about our future,” Frieden said.
The Institute for the Study of War assessed late Thursday that Moscow aims “to dismantle NATO and the post-Cold War European security architecture.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov countered that Russia remains open to contacts with Europeans once their true intentions and readiness to facilitate a peace process become clear.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy repeated complaints regarding drone speed limits on the U.S. Starshield system, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. Unannounced restrictions are limiting Ukrainian drones to 161 kph across the entire front line and in Russian-occupied territory, making it impossible to deploy interceptors effectively against fast-moving Russian jet-powered drones, he said.
“We still have no clear explanations,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukrainian officials are asking the U.S. Department of State, the Pentagon, and SpaceX to resolve the situation.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that air defenses downed the 1,198 long-range Ukrainian drones between late Thursday and early Friday. However, strikes across three Russian regions killed seven people, including a 12-year-old child, and wounded 17 others, according to local officials.
In return, Russia launched 117 drones against Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old. A single Russian attack on southern Zaporizhzhia hit two five-story apartment blocks on Friday, wounding 25 people, including six children, local officials reported. Since the conflict began, Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure every winter in an attempt to erode civilian resolve.
“Once we understand (Europe’s) true intentions and their readiness to facilitate the peace process, then it will be possible to make a decision on holding a dialogue regarding a settlement in Ukraine in an expanded format,” Peskov said.
