Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russian targets overnight in one of its biggest aerial attacks since Moscow's invasion nearly five years ago. The strike came as U.S. and Russian negotiators broadened talks aimed at ending the fighting to include wider European security arrangements that have been in place since the end of the Cold War, a change long sought by Moscow that has alarmed European leaders and placed a question mark over NATO's future role.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected the idea, saying of Russia: "Russia wants to talk about questions of European security architecture. We don't need to talk about that. There is one," referring to the NATO military alliance. After two days of talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi, U.S. envoys travelled to brief Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was meeting European leaders in Dublin, Ireland. Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the latter also President Donald Trump's son-in-law, said further talks are planned as negotiators seek a breakthrough.S1S2

Kushner said Russia had agreed to include Europe in upcoming talks, reversing Moscow's long insistence that European governments be excluded because they had supported Ukraine. Kushner said on X that Europe's presence would allow negotiators "to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia." European leaders, still scrambling to find an envoy, remained wary of Russian manoeuvring as well as Trump's praise for Putin and his administration's sharp criticism of Europe.S1S2

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe must insist on a ceasefire before taking the negotiations further, the opposite of what Putin demands, warning in Dublin: "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." Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden said Europe must take its fate into its own hands: "We cannot let neither the Americans nor the Russians decide about our future." The Institute for the Study of War assessed that Moscow aims "to dismantle NATO and the post-Cold War European security architecture."S1S2

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained open to contacts with Europeans, but that a decision on a dialogue in an expanded format would depend on understanding Europe's true intentions and its readiness to facilitate the peace process. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, repeated complaints about drone speed limits, while reports raised concerns that recurring Starlink problems could signal reduced US support for Ukraine.S1S2