Will Russia Really Resume Peace Talks With Ukraine?

Vladimir Putin told Steve Witkoff on Wednesday that Russia is “in principle” ready to resume three-way talks with the United States and Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to Al Jazeera. Ushakov put the date in mid-November. In the same remarks he said that in the new approaches from Kyiv and the Europeans there “wasn’t really much substance.”

The meeting in St. Petersburg was Witkoff’s ninth in-person session with Putin and lasted about three hours. It opened with the release of a jailed American, Stephen Hubbard, and with a line from Witkoff that drew criticism from Republican senators within hours. Zelensky, speaking to Fox News the same morning, had set out his own price for a pause. Our earlier piece covered the opening of the day. This one sets out what each side said once the meeting ended.

Moscow accepted the format of the talks, and no Russian reply to Zelensky’s offer to freeze the front had been reported by Wednesday evening. Ushakov said the agenda would be “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.” Peskov, quoted by TASS, rejected an energy truce: Russia “needs peace, not a truce.” Trump said Hubbard’s release depended on his decision to hold back new sanctions. Witkoff’s own account of the day was short and said technical talks would follow.

Ushakov spoke to reporters after the meeting. “Steve Witkoff briefed Vladimir Putin on the substance of the talks held in Oslo,” he said. “He mentioned some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv … but there wasn’t really much substance in them.” He added: “Our president informed Steve Witkoff that we are, in principle, ready to resume the mentioned talks,” as Al Jazeera quoted him. Ushakov told state television Vesti the talks could be held in Abu Dhabi. Moneycontrol, citing Ushakov, reported the start date as after 10 November.

Witkoff posted his own summary on social media, as Euronews reported. “Discussions were constructive, and will continue with trilateral talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine at the technical level,” he wrote. “While there is still important work left to do, President Trump remains committed to seeing this war end.”

During the meeting Witkoff thanked Putin for Hubbard’s release. Russian state media video, as the New York Post reported, caught him saying: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.” Hubbard is a 74-year-old Michigan native who was captured in Ukraine in 2022 and sentenced in 2024 to almost seven years, CBS News reported. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina answered on X: “Look up the definition of ‘humanitarian.’” Senator John Cornyn of Texas wrote that “Putin is stone cold killer,” according to MS NOW.

Zelensky was on Fox News while the meeting was under way. “Right now we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,” he said. “We call it ceasefire... freeze and stop.” He also said: “don’t speak about us without us, please,” Euronews reported.

On Wednesday, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov addressed the proposals from the Oslo meeting and the idea of an energy truce. He told reporters, as TASS quoted him, that “Russia needs peace, not a truce,” and that a pan-European position is “unlikely to make a constructive contribution to a settlement.” He also said: “Someone there has to make a responsible decision,” meaning in Kyiv, according to a Ukrainian outlet’s report of the TASS text.

Start with the order of events. Zelensky offered a freeze on Wednesday morning. By Wednesday afternoon Ushakov had agreed to talks but described Kyiv’s ideas as lacking substance. Peskov’s line that Russia “needs peace, not a truce” came the same day, in answer to the energy truce idea.

Trump’s own posts ran the other way from Witkoff’s. In a Truth Social post quoted by CBS News, he said Hubbard was freed “at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week,” and that “There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release.” In a second post he wrote that if sanctions had been imposed, “certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.” The sanctions package had been paused the previous Friday, as MS NOW reported. Hubbard’s release came five days after Trump announced the waiver, CBS noted.

Ushakov also said a meeting of Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping “is being prepared” for the Asia-Pacific summit in Shenzhen next month. Peskov told the Wall Street Journal, as Moneycontrol reported, that there was “no clear understanding yet regarding the meeting itself or its potential agenda.” Trump said on Monday that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” MS NOW reported. Our piece on the Shenzhen proposal has the background.

Rubio told reporters in India, as the New York Post reported, that “If it were not for the assistance of the United States, including under the Trump administration, there would be no Ukraine right now.”

Two voices outside the three governments offered a reading. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said: “I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy,” as Moneycontrol reported. Leslie Shedd, a former Republican aide on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who now works with the Atlantic Council, told MS NOW: “The president’s actions are predicated on the fact that he wants the war to end. I just don’t think Russia is willing to do that yet.”

Ushakov gave two dates: talks after 10 November, in mid-November, possibly in Abu Dhabi, and a Shenzhen meeting next month. Moneycontrol noted that the Kremlin’s announcement fixes only Putin’s agreement in principle, not a date or terms. Trump has not publicly confirmed the Shenzhen summit.

Three markers would test the reading. First, whether Moscow answers Zelensky’s freeze in words. Peskov’s “peace, not a truce” answered the energy truce idea, and no reply on the freeze has been reported. Second, whether the Washington sanctions pause survives Congress, where Tillis and Cornyn have already spoken. Third, whether a date and a venue are published for the technical round. Until then, the Kremlin has agreed in principle to attend a meeting, and the terms, date and venue remain open.