The Abu Dhabi skyline — the Emirati capital is the likely venue for the resumed three-way talks. (Image: AdnanDekedek / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0)
Russia has agreed in principle to resume three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the United States, the Kremlin said, in what would be the first US-mediated negotiations between the three sides in about nine months.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said President Vladimir Putin agreed during his meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to resume the talks after November 10. The discussions would take place at the level of negotiating teams, would likely be held in Abu Dhabi, and would focus on how to guarantee the security of both Ukraine and Russia once the war ends, Ushakov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the proposal. Speaking to journalists as he returned to Kyiv from Norway, he said Ukraine supported holding the talks "as soon as possible," preferably no later than early November, and that Kyiv backed "any proposals for a ceasefire, an end to the war, an energy ceasefire as well as humanitarian initiatives."
The agreement capped a three-hour meeting between Putin and Witkoff, a day after Witkoff held talks in Oslo with Zelenskyy and European leaders. Witkoff said after the St. Petersburg meeting that there was a basis for reaching a ceasefire, and the encounter began with a goodwill gesture: Russia's release of Stephen Hubbard, the 74-year-old American who had been imprisoned as a wrongfully detained prisoner since 2022.
But Moscow signalled that the road to a deal remains steep. Ushakov said the proposals Witkoff brought from Oslo contained little of substance from Russia's perspective, and there is no sign the Kremlin has retreated from its core demands — full control of Ukraine's Donbas region, a reduced Ukrainian military, and a pledge that Kyiv will never join NATO. European leaders, meanwhile, are preparing to meet on November 26–27 to discuss how to finance Ukraine's estimated €70 billion ($78.6 billion) in unmet needs for 2027.
And the fighting has not paused for the diplomacy. Overnight Russian attacks killed five people and wounded at least 23 across Ukraine, striking energy facilities in Kyiv and three other cities and damaging 10 residential buildings in the capital; two more people died when drones hit a residential area outside Kharkiv. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 373 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran, which pushed Ukraine down Washington's agenda. Whether the November round produces more than the previous ones will depend on whether either capital is ready to move on the questions that have blocked every attempt so far.
Also read: Russia freed wrongfully detained American Stephen Hubbard during Witkoff's Moscow visit | planned US-Israel strikes on Iran