The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted, in principle, a return to peace negotiations among Russia, Ukraine and the United States, with the next round expected after November 10.
Putin answered US envoy Steve Witkoff during roughly three hours of talks at a palace outside St. Petersburg, with Jared Kushner on a video link, according to Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov. Ushakov said the agenda would center on security arrangements for Russia and Ukraine once the war ends, and that a round could come around mid-November, with Abu Dhabi floated as a venue. Earlier rounds met in Abu Dhabi and Geneva.
Witkoff had carried proposals from Ukrainian and European officials out of Oslo, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, and Ushakov said they offered little of substance. Peskov said Moscow would review them and that any negotiation would be lengthy.
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Kremlin officials said progress depends on Kyiv taking steps Moscow considers necessary. A US official said both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to restart technical-level talks. Before the meeting, Witkoff said he saw “some degree of momentum.”
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Zelensky supports talks between negotiating teams and wants a meeting by early November. He has said only a summit of leaders can break the impasse and that freezing the conflict is the minimum he expects from Russia. President Donald Trump has pressed Zelenskyy to make a deal with Moscow while holding off on new sanctions against Russia.
Ukraine’s military had gone at least a week without early warnings of ballistic missiles aimed at Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, until the alerts resumed Tuesday after he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, speaking in India, said “nothing has changed” and denied the US is withholding assistance.
Russia also freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher and Michigan native, in what Witkoff called a goodwill gesture. He fell into Russian custody in Ukraine in 2022, and Russia sentenced him in 2024 to a penal colony term of nearly seven years for allegedly serving at a checkpoint for mercenaries. Trump said he asked Putin for the release in a call last week and wrote, “There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release.” Trump has linked the release to his move to hold off on new Russia sanctions.
Witkoff credited Putin with ending Russia’s ban on diesel exports, part of a deal Trump announced October 10 that Kyiv and European governments have criticized.
Fighting continued Wednesday. Ukrainian officials reported at least four deaths from Russian strikes, and authorities installed by Russia in occupied Luhansk reported two deaths from a Ukrainian drone strike.
