US President Donald Trump says he met the Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House and afterwards announced a “big, beautiful deal” that would go beyond Ukraine and could affect “all of Europe”. As several media outlets reported consistently on Thursday, 5 November, Trump told journalists in the Oval Office: “It will cover more than Ukraine, and I might even say it could cover all of Europe.” He gave no details.
“I can’t tell you what I talked about,” Trump said, according to n-tv.de and WELT. “I’ll just tell you: there will be an agreement, there will be a big agreement.” Everyone would be enthusiastic, he claimed. The news agency AFP, on which the Berliner Zeitung relies, quotes him as saying there would be a “big, beautiful deal”.
Trump says he did not meet the Ukrainian representatives who were also at the White House. Asked the corresponding question by reporters, he said he had not done so, WELT reports.
A reception by the First Lady – and a first
The trigger for the trip was an event hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, who received representatives of Moscow and Kyiv at the White House on Thursday. According to WELT, it was the first time that representatives of Russia and Ukraine met there in person; according to US media reports, it was also the first public appearance of a Kremlin envoy at the White House since the start of the war.
Alongside Dmitriev, the participants included the Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets, the parliamentary group leader of the presidential party, David Arakhamia, and the Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova. Dmitriev thanked President Vladimir Putin on his behalf for Melania’s “outstanding humanitarian role” in brokering the ceasefire in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky in the Kherson region. According to WELT, the truce had applied from Tuesday until Sunday evening and was thus the longest in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which has lasted for a good four and a half years.
The First Lady spoke in favour of a lasting ceasefire. “I hope Oleshky inspires greater peace,” she said at a joint press conference. Every significant change begins “with a small spark”. According to the portal vietnam.vn, which refers to the event, the local ceasefire enabled the evacuation of around 800 civilians as well as humanitarian deliveries. Melania Trump handed both sides letters to Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as reported by Reuters, among others, according to the Berliner Zeitung. Arakhamia and Lubinets asked her to continue her peace efforts.
Abu Dhabi, Brussels – and the open territorial question
Diplomatic contacts are running in parallel at several levels. According to Reuters, US-mediated talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations are planned in Abu Dhabi for 10 and 11 November, as the Berliner Zeitung and the BBC report. According to the BBC, Russia is to be represented there by Vladimir Medinsky. These would be the first talks in this format since February, Trump’s special envoy Jared Kushner wrote on the platform X.
In Brussels, according to Bloomberg, on which the Berliner Zeitung relies, the US delegation consulted with representatives of Ukraine, Nato and European partners on security guarantees for Ukraine and a broader European security architecture. The talks had been “constructive and substantive”, Kushner wrote. The US wanted to coordinate closely with European partners and, if there was progress, pursue a multilateral format with European participation.
According to President Zelensky, Ukraine wants to discuss several points in Abu Dhabi: an end to attacks on energy and critical infrastructure, the opening of the Black Sea and an intensified prisoner exchange. Kyiv also insists on a meeting between Zelensky and Putin under US mediation and on European involvement. The most difficult question remains the territories: Zelensky has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine accepts no territorial concessions and that such questions could only be discussed at the level of heads of state.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported in early November that doubts were growing in the Kremlin that Trump could move Ukraine towards Russian conditions. Moscow is now counting on prolonging the war, intensifying attacks on Ukraine and increasing pressure on its European allies. Russia continues to demand the handover of the unoccupied areas of the Donbas and political changes in Ukraine.
Editor’s note: Whether and in what form an agreement will come about is open. Trump’s announcement is a declaration of intent without published content.
