RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin has agreed to resume three-way negotiations next month with Washington and Kyiv aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin official said.
The Russian leader has agreed “in principle” to resume the talks after 10 November, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters following a meeting in St Petersburg between Putin and US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
The talks will focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends”, Ushakov said.
Advertisement
Witkoff’s talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine came as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that only a summit of leaders can break the impasse. The two armies remain locked on the battlefield, and the two countries pummel each other with daily long-range strikes.
Representatives of the three countries held three rounds of negotiations earlier this year, meeting twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February, followed by further talks in Geneva in February.
However, little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their basic demands.
The discussion in St Petersburg lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said, and came a day after Witkoff met Zelensky and some European leaders in Norway’s capital, Oslo.
The proposals from the Oslo meeting “contained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis”, Ushakov said.
However, he later told Russian state TV that while Moscow is not “fully satisfied” with the Oslo proposals, they are a step in the right direction.
Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to US-led peace efforts, more than four years after the war began. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress.
Zelensky said freezing the conflict in Ukraine was the “minimum” required from Russia to bring about an end to the war.
“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,” Zelensky said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday on Fox News.
‘Momentum’
Witkoff and Putin met at St Petersburg’s Constantine Palace, with Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev also at the table. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined the discussion via a video link, Ushakov said.
Before the meeting, Witkoff said that “there is some degree of momentum” in talks.
During the meeting, Witkoff and Kushner proposed a three-way meeting with the US, Russia and Ukraine at the technical level and shared progress on their talks with Zelensky a day earlier, according to a US official familiar with the talks.
Witkoff thanked Putin for agreeing to send diesel to the US, after Trump lifted a ban despite anger from some US politicians, adding that the fuel would help reduce prices for American farmers and lorry drivers.
Putin said he was ready to consider prospects for the restoration of US-Russia economic ties, adding that he was also prepared to discuss the US-led conflict with Iran. Moscow stands ready to use its relationship with Tehran to help bring peace, he said.
Ushakov said that “large-scale joint economic projects that offer significant prospects for cooperation” between Russia and the US were discussed in detail with Witkoff.
“Some of these are, in fact, nearing the implementation stage,” he said.
Putin agrees to resume talks on Ukraine war with Kyiv and US after talks with Trump envoy
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin has agreed to resume three-way negotiations next month with Washington and Kyiv aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin official said.
The Russian leader has agreed “in principle” to resume the talks after 10 November, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters following a meeting in St Petersburg between Putin and US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
The talks will focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends”, Ushakov said.
Witkoff’s talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine came as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that only a summit of leaders can break the impasse. The two armies remain locked on the battlefield, and the two countries pummel each other with daily long-range strikes.
Representatives of the three countries held three rounds of negotiations earlier this year, meeting twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February, followed by further talks in Geneva in February.
However, little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their basic demands.
The discussion in St Petersburg lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said, and came a day after Witkoff met Zelensky and some European leaders in Norway’s capital, Oslo.
The proposals from the Oslo meeting “contained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis”, Ushakov said.
However, he later told Russian state TV that while Moscow is not “fully satisfied” with the Oslo proposals, they are a step in the right direction.
Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to US-led peace efforts, more than four years after the war began. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress.
Zelensky said freezing the conflict in Ukraine was the “minimum” required from Russia to bring about an end to the war.
“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,” Zelensky said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday on Fox News.
‘Momentum’
Witkoff and Putin met at St Petersburg’s Constantine Palace, with Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev also at the table. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined the discussion via a video link, Ushakov said.
Before the meeting, Witkoff said that “there is some degree of momentum” in talks.
During the meeting, Witkoff and Kushner proposed a three-way meeting with the US, Russia and Ukraine at the technical level and shared progress on their talks with Zelensky a day earlier, according to a US official familiar with the talks.
Witkoff thanked Putin for agreeing to send diesel to the US, after Trump lifted a ban despite anger from some US politicians, adding that the fuel would help reduce prices for American farmers and lorry drivers.
Putin said he was ready to consider prospects for the restoration of US-Russia economic ties, adding that he was also prepared to discuss the US-led conflict with Iran. Moscow stands ready to use its relationship with Tehran to help bring peace, he said.
Ushakov said that “large-scale joint economic projects that offer significant prospects for cooperation” between Russia and the US were discussed in detail with Witkoff.
“Some of these are, in fact, nearing the implementation stage,” he said.
Diplomacy Donald Trump October Peace Talks Russia Ukraine War Vladimir Putin volodymyr zelensky Irish Politics International