First Trilateral Talks Since February Set for After November 10

The first trilateral negotiations since February could take place after November 10. The Kremlin confirmed Wednesday that Russia agreed in principle to resume three-way talks with Washington and Kyiv, signaling a potential restart of diplomatic efforts that have stalled for months. Yuri Ushakov, the foreign affairs adviser to President Vladimir Putin, announced the plan following a meeting in St. Petersburg between the Russian leader and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

The upcoming discussions are intended to focus on building a security system for Russia and Ukraine once the conflict ends. This meeting in St. Petersburg lasted approximately three hours and occurred just a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo, Norway. During the gathering at the Constantine Palace, Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, proposed a three-way meeting at the technical level. The conversation also covered a postwar economic plan, European security, and logistics for the upcoming meeting.

While Russia is engaging with the proposal, Moscow expressed skepticism regarding recent diplomatic efforts. Ushakov stated that proposals emerging from the Oslo meeting contained little of real value in the context of resolving the crisis. However, he later noted on Russian state television that while Moscow is not fully satisfied with the proposals, they represent a step in the right direction.

In the United States, pressure continues to mount on Kyiv to reach an agreement. At the White House this week, President Donald Trump increased pressure on Zelenskyy to compromise with Russia, telling reporters, “We want Zelenskyy to make a deal.” The President added, “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,” warning that a failure to reach an agreement would be a very bad thing.

Despite the push for talks, the situation on the ground remains violent. Overnight Russian attacks in Kyiv left three people dead and 12 others wounded, while energy facilities were also targeted in several cities. Outside Kharkiv, two people died and 11 were wounded following drone explosions. The Russian Defense Ministry reported its air defenses intercepted 373 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions and the Black Sea overnight.

Efforts to resolve the war have made no significant progress over the past 4½ years. Representatives from the three countries held three rounds of negotiations early this year, meeting twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February, followed by talks in Geneva in February. Little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war as both Moscow and Kyiv maintained their longstanding basic demands.

In a related development, Russia released a retired American teacher who had been imprisoned on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. Witkoff described the release of Stephen Hubbard as a goodwill gesture by the Kremlin following a request from Trump. Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre suggested that he thinks Russia is looking for opportunities for diplomacy and stated that new talks were likely to happen in mid-November.