Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Wednesday 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 โin principleโ to resume the talks after Nov. 10, Putinโs foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters following a meeting in St. Petersburg between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trumpโs envoy Steve Witkoff.
The talks will focus on โbuilding a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends,โ Ushakov said.
Witkoffโs talks with Putin about Moscowโs full-scale invasion of Ukraine took place as Trump pushed Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 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 early 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.
Latest proposals to end the war have little of value, Kremlin says
The discussion in St. Petersburg lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said, and came a day after Witkoff met with Zelenskyy and some European leaders in Norwayโs capital, Oslo.
The proposals from the Oslo meeting โcontained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis,โ Ushakov said.
However, he later told Russian state TV that while Moscow isnโt โfully satisfiedโ with the Oslo proposals, they are a step in the right direction.
Witkoffโs meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to U.S.-led peace efforts, more than four-and-a-half years after the war began. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress.
Zelenskyy said freezing the conflict in Ukraine was the โminimumโ required from Russia to bring about an end to the war.
โRight now, we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,โ Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Fox News.
Witkoff sees โsome degree of momentumโ in peace efforts
Get daily National news
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.
Witkoff and Putin met at St. Petersburgโs Constantine Palace, with Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev also at the table. Trumpโs son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined the discussion via a video link, Ushakov said.
Before the meeting, Witkoff said that โthere is some degree of momentumโ in talks.
He thanked Putin for agreeing to send diesel to the U.S., after Trump lifted a ban despite anger from some U.S. lawmakers, adding that the fuel would help reduce prices for American farmers and truckers.
Putin said he was ready to consider prospects for the restoration of U.S.-Russia economic ties, adding that he was also prepared to discuss the U.S.-led conflict with Iran. Moscow stands ready to use its relationship with Tehran to help bring peace, he said.
Ushakov said that โlarge-scale joint economic projects that offer significant prospects for cooperationโ between Russia and the U.S. were discussed in detail with Witkoff.
โSome of these are, in fact, nearing the implementation stage,โ he said.
In other developments, Russia on Wednesday released a retired American teacher who had been imprisoned on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. Witkoff said it appeared to be a goodwill gesture by the Kremlin after Trump asked Putin to free Stephen Hubbard.
Putin also met Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who was in St. Petersburg for talks with other Russian officials, the Kremlin said.
Russia has cultivated its ties with China, and the two countries last month vetoed a U.S. proposal for U.N. experts to keep monitoring sanctions on Iran.
Putin and Witkoff also discussed a possible meeting next month between the Russian, Chinese and U.S. leaders at an economic summit in China, Ushakov said, adding that Beijing is already preparing for it.
Norwayโs prime minister sees a possible โnew phaseโ in talks
Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for more consultations after his trip to Russia, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stรธre said.
โI think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy,โ Stรธre told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy was still in Oslo early Wednesday, where he visited Norwayโs parliament and met with lawmakers.
Zelenskyy said the talks in Oslo and St. Petersburg included discussion of future security guarantees for Ukraine, the fate of occupied territories, postwar reconstruction and the possibility of a ceasefire.
Trump presses Zelenskyy to compromise
At the White House on Tuesday, Trump increased the pressure on Zelenskyy to come to an agreement with Russia as relations between the two leaders have soured again.
โWe want Zelenskyy to make a deal,โ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. โWeโve given a lot to Ukraine. Weโve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.โ
If that doesnโt happen, โI think itโs going to be a very bad thing,โ Trump said.
Amid fears that Washington was turning its back on Ukraine, Zelenskyy said Kyiv is once again receiving early warnings from its partners about incoming Russian missiles, after recent strikes that he said occurred without enough notice from allies.
Russian attacks kill five people and wound at least 23 others, Ukraine says
Overnight Russian attacks in Kyiv left three people dead and 12 wounded, while 10 residential buildings were damaged, the cityโs military administration said.
Energy facilities were targeted in Kyiv and three other cities in Russian attacks early Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said. Outside the eastern city of Kharkiv, two people died and 11 others were wounded when drones exploded in a residential area, he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that overnight its forces struck a warehouse, an electrical substation and a bulk carrier at sea that was headed to the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported Wednesday that its air defenses intercepted 373 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea.
About the Author
