Russia Agrees to Three-Way Talks With US and Ukraine Next Month

Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-party negotiations next month with Washington and Kyiv, according to a Kremlin official, potentially setting up the first such session since February. The announcement followed a meeting in St. Petersburg between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters the Russian leader agreed "in principle" to restart the talks after Nov. 10. The discussions would focus on "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends," Ushakov said.

The St. Petersburg meeting at Constantine Palace lasted about three hours and came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in Oslo, Norway. Representatives from 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. Little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their longstanding basic demands.

Zelenskyy said he supported the push from Washington to restart talks swiftly. "The agenda is clear: to end the war, bring peace closer, and, as I understand it, prepare everything for a meeting at the leaders' level," Zelenskyy said in an audio message issued late Wednesday. "Russia has said many times already that it is ready to meet in one format or another. Then something changed. Things were canceled. We'll see what happens this time." Shortly after his message, a missile alert sounded over Kyiv, and loud explosions were heard in the capital.

Ushakov said proposals from the Oslo meeting "contained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis." 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. Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev were at the table during the meeting, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined the discussion by video, Ushakov said. Witkoff and Kushner proposed a three-way meeting with the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine at the technical level, according to a U.S. official familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. They also discussed a postwar economic plan, European security, and plans for the upcoming meeting, the official said.

At the White House on Tuesday, Trump increased pressure on Zelenskyy to come to an agreement with Russia as relations between the two leaders have soured again. "We want Zelenskyy to make a deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We've given a lot to Ukraine. We've gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss." If that doesn't happen, "I think it's going to be a very bad thing," Trump said. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress. The war began more than 4½ years ago.

Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said he believes Russia is also looking for diplomacy. "I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy," Støre told broadcaster NRK. He said the new talks were likely to happen in mid-November.

Overnight Russian attacks in Kyiv left three people dead and 12 wounded, while 10 residential buildings were damaged, the city's 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.