Russia open to resuming trilateral talks with US, Ukraine to end war

Russia is open to resuming trilateral negotiations with the United States (US) and Ukraine to end the war, the Kremlin said after Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, news agency AFP reported. However, Moscow criticised recent proposals from Kyiv and European countries, saying they lacked substantive details.
The Kremlin also said preparations were underway for a summit involving Putin, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Shenzhen, China, next month. It described the proposed meeting as the first of its kind in history.
Putin held more than three hours of talks with Witkoff in his home city, a day after the US envoy described his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway as “productive”. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also participated in the talks with Putin remotely.
The latest diplomatic engagement comes amid continued efforts by Washington to broker an end to the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Despite more than a year of US-led negotiations, the discussions have yet to produce a breakthrough, with tens of thousands of people killed in the conflict.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Witkoff had briefed Putin on “some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv” following the Oslo meeting. However, he added that “there wasn’t really much substance in them”.
Putin has repeatedly rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and maintained that Russia intends to seize the remaining parts of eastern Ukraine.
Russia says trilateral talks could resume in November
Ushakov said the proposed summit involving the leaders of Russia, the United States and China was “being prepared” in Shenzhen, without disclosing what would be discussed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and its European allies have expressed concern that Washington could negotiate a settlement with Moscow without their involvement.
“I always said that we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics. But don’t speak about us without us, please,” Zelensky told US broadcaster Fox News on Wednesday.
Witkoff, who was meeting Putin for the ninth time, said he had brought proposals and ideas aimed at securing a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you’ll read that at your leisure,” Witkoff told Putin at Saint Petersburg’s Konstantinovsky Palace before the talks.
The US envoy also expressed support for restarting trilateral negotiations, a position the Kremlin subsequently said it was open to. Ushakov said the talks could resume in mid-November, with Moscow seeking to focus discussions on post-war security arrangements.
As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian strikes had killed at least four people, including two in Kyiv and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region. Russian occupation authorities in the Lugansk region, meanwhile, said a Ukrainian drone strike targeting a telephone company had killed two people.
Witkoff sees momentum in negotiations
Witkoff told Putin he saw “some degree of momentum” in the US-led diplomatic efforts following his meeting with Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president, who remained in Norway on Wednesday for meetings with the country’s political leaders, said he was waiting to hear “whether the American side manages to hear something new from Russia today”.
The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting on Tuesday followed several days of friction between Washington and Kyiv, as Trump called for a change in Ukraine’s leadership.
Witkoff also thanked Putin for a diesel supply arrangement that reportedly involved easing US sanctions on Moscow to allow Russian fuel to reach the American market. The move drew criticism from Kyiv and European countries, which have urged Western governments to increase pressure on Russia rather than relax restrictions.
The arrangement has been viewed as an attempt to ease fuel prices for American consumers ahead of next month’s US midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party faces a challenging contest.
Witkoff said Washington was interested in expanding business and economic cooperation with Russia once the war ended.
“We even talk about it now openly with the Ukrainians to give them some sort of sense about what the possibilities will be when this whole conflict is over,” he said.
Ukraine has continued to urge Western countries to maintain sanctions and increase pressure on Moscow.
Russia releases US citizen Stephen Hubbard
Ahead of the talks, Putin announced the release of US citizen Stephen Hubbard, who was captured by Russian forces in Ukraine in 2022 and later sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.
Trump had asked Putin to release Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had consistently denied charges that he was a mercenary fighting for Ukraine.
Witkoff described Putin as a “humanitarian”. Trump later said Hubbard was on his way to the United States and that his release had not been part of a prisoner exchange.
The diplomatic engagement comes as Russia continues military operations in Ukraine and both sides remain divided over the terms of a potential settlement. While Moscow has indicated a willingness to resume trilateral negotiations, the prospects for a lasting agreement remain uncertain.
(With AFP inputs)