Putin agrees to resume 3-way peace talks with Ukraine and US
The latest talks also came more than two years after Trump promised during his successful election campaign to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in the latest US push to end Europe's bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
The negotiations, held in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, marked the ninth time Witkoff had met Putin in person. They began with a goodwill gesture from Russia: the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired US schoolteacher held in Russia, whom US President Donald Trump had asked the Kremlin chief to release.
Wednesday's meeting took place amid concerns in Kyiv and among its allies that the United States is backing away from Ukraine, at times withholding real-time intelligence on Russian attacks and hampering Ukraine's military communications.
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The latest talks also came more than two years after Trump promised during his successful election campaign to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.
The Kremlin said the new trilateral peace talks, which would be held at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would focus on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended.
They could begin on or after 10 November, it said. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
The Kremlin was less optimistic, however, about the outcome of talks Witkoff had held a day earlier in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leaders of Finland and Norway, and European and Nato representatives.
Witkoff told Putin the talks had been characterised by "some degree of momentum", and a US official said Ukraine had brought forward new ideas and proposals.
"These nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the meeting in St Petersburg, which lasted nearly three hours.
Possible meeting between Trump, Putin and Xi
Ukraine and Russia remain far apart on the terms of any potential peace deal, although Trump has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to reach some kind of agreement. He said on Tuesday that it was time for Ukraine to end the war or face "a very bad thing".
Putin also used Wednesday's talks to offer to help Trump deal with Iran, saying Russia had maintained a decades-long relationship with Tehran and had repeatedly offered to use it to address US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. Putin told Witkoff that reaching a deal with Tehran was both possible and necessary, the Kremlin said.
Russia could also supply vast quantities of fertiliser to the United States to help US farmers, the Russian president told Witkoff.
A potential meeting in China next month involving Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was also discussed. The Kremlin said Beijing was already preparing what it described as the first meeting of its kind in history.
'New ideas'
Putin has shown few signs of compromising on his central war aims, which include full Russian control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, no Nato membership for Kyiv and an overall peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special investment envoy, was also present at the talks with Witkoff. The Kremlin said major joint economic projects had been discussed, including some that were close to being realised.
Witkoff said he had brought documents containing various ideas for a potential peace deal for Putin to review. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, also wanted to convey some ideas to Putin. Kushner later joined the meeting remotely by phone.
Zelenskyy said he hoped to discuss key issues related to ending the war during a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy would need to be meticulously prepared in advance by aides to ensure it was worthwhile.
Fraying US-Ukraine ties
US-Ukraine ties have deteriorated sharply since Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia earlier this month to help lower prices in the United States. High fuel costs since he launched strikes on Iran have hurt his Republicans ahead of the November legislative elections.
Since the diesel deal, Ukraine has complained of disruptions to some intelligence-sharing arrangements and to its use of the Starshield military satellite system, although Zelenskyy said Tuesday's meeting in Oslo had produced an agreement to resolve those issues.
Citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that billionaire Elon Musk had ordered a slowdown last week of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service, which Ukraine relies on to track Russian ballistic missile strikes.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Musk has said that any such decision is taken by the US military or the president. Trump has said he was not responsible, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Wednesday that Washington had not restricted Kyiv's access to Starlink.
