Putin agrees in principle to resume Russia-Ukraine-US talks after Nov. 10, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Wednesday to resume trilateral negotiations with Washington and Kyiv on ending the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin official said. Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the Russian leader agreed "in principle" to resume the talks after Nov. 10, following a meeting in St. Petersburg between Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff. Ushakov said the talks will focus on "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends." [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]

A US official said the talks would take place "at the technical level" between the three countries, meaning Putin will not meet face to face with the leaders of the US or Ukraine, the New York Post reported. The official said the Ukrainians consented to trilateral talks in Oslo on Tuesday and the Russians agreed in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. The official also said there was "progress reached in talks with Zelensky yesterday" and that the parties discussed a post-war economic and prosperity plan, European security architecture and plans for the upcoming trilateral meeting. [ 2 ]

The discussion in St. Petersburg lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said, and came a day after Witkoff met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and some European leaders in Oslo. According to the New York Post, that meeting weighed a proposal laying out Kyiv's security guarantees, economic recovery funds and other items, which Witkoff then took to Putin. Ushakov said the Oslo proposals "contained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis." He later told Russian state TV that Moscow is not "fully satisfied" with them but that they are a step in the right direction. [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]

The summit also followed the release of American teacher Stephen Hubbard, 72, who had been taken captive in eastern Ukraine by Russian forces after the start of the war, the New York Post reported. The US official said "Steve and Jared" expressed gratitude to Putin for the release and that Hubbard was headed back to the US that day. PBS NewsHour linked to a report that Russia freed Hubbard after more than four years in prison. [ 1 , 2 ]

Representatives of the three countries held three rounds of negotiations early this year, meeting twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February and then in Geneva in February. Little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war, as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their basic demands. Zelensky has insisted that only a summit of leaders can break the impasse, and the two armies remain locked on the battlefield, exchanging daily long-range strikes. [ 1 , 5 ]

The Boston Globe said the agreement could set up the first such talks since February. PBS NewsHour said Witkoff's meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to US-led peace efforts more than 4½ years after the war began, but that efforts by the Trump administration since early last year have made no significant progress and there was no suggestion on Wednesday of an imminent high-level breakthrough. A Reuters headline said Zelenskiy hopes for new talks with Russia and the US by early November. [ 1 , 4 , 5 ]