Russia has told the United States it is prepared in principle to restart negotiations with Washington and Kyiv aimed at ending the war, according to Yuri Ushakov, an aide to President Vladimir Putin. The statement followed a meeting between Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg, BBC reported on Thursday. Ushakov said a fresh round of talks, suspended since February, could take place next month.
He told reporters after Wednesday's session that a new round could be convened around November 10 in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. According to BBC, Ushakov said the discussions should centre on constructing a security arrangement for Russia and Ukraine once the fighting ends.
Why it matters
The announcement marks the first public signal in months that Moscow is willing to return to the table. Russia has refused talks for some time, calculating that it is gaining ground on the battlefield while Ukraine struggles with a severe shortage of interceptors against Russian missile strikes, BBC reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies have been pressing Moscow to resume negotiations without delay. A confirmed round in Abu Dhabi would be the first formal three-way engagement since the process stalled in February.
A proposal accepted in two capitals
A US official told BBC that Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and one of the administration's lead negotiators, proposed during Tuesday's talks in the Norwegian capital a "technical-level trilateral meeting" involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the idea was accepted by the Ukrainian side in Oslo on Tuesday and by the Russian side in St Petersburg on Wednesday.
The Witkoff visit to St Petersburg came after Zelensky met the leaders of Norway and Finland in Oslo on Monday. Specific proposals that Witkoff carried to Putin were not made public. Zelensky said after the Oslo discussions that the parties had talked about "strong" security guarantees for Ukraine and about proposals concerning the timing of a ceasefire covering energy facilities.
Ushakov also said Putin told Witkoff that Russian forces are advancing along the entire front and hold the initiative. Ukraine and its European partners dispute that account, describing the front line as deadlocked, with neither side able to make a decisive breakthrough or secure a clear victory.
Witkoff described the Oslo and St Petersburg talks as constructive.
A widening gap between Kyiv and Washington
The diplomacy unfolded against growing friction between Ukraine and the United States. President Trump said the time had come for Ukraine to have a new president and "someone else to negotiate on Ukraine's behalf," remarks he made later, according to BBC.
Trump has blamed Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries for pushing up fuel prices, which have been rising since the start of the US-led war on Iran. He has also drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans after lifting sanctions on Russia, a move that allows tonnes of diesel to reach the US and global markets. That decision came only weeks after he signed legislation permitting new US sanctions and tariffs on countries that import Russian oil and gas.
Last week Kyiv accused Washington of withholding sensitive intelligence that would have warned Ukrainians of Russian ballistic missile attacks, which killed numerous civilians. On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the accusation as disgraceful, while Zelensky said after the Oslo talks that intelligence sharing is now working.
Ukraine's military has separately complained about speed restrictions imposed by Elon Musk's Starlink network, which it says have limited its ability to use drones in attacks on Russia. US officials denied that the slowdown or restrictions came at their request, and a bipartisan group of US senators has called for an urgent investigation.
Drones over Moscow and a prisoner released
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said Thursday that 630 drones were launched toward the capital region overnight, injuring two people. In a post on social media, Sobyanin said the drones were heading for the Moscow area between 8:30 pm on October 21 and 4 am on October 22, and that air defence systems destroyed most of them.
Before the Putin–Witkoff meeting began, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American who had spent about seven years in Russian prisons on charges of fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. Trump said the former teacher was on his way home and that no exchange was required. Witkoff described Putin's decision to approve the release as humane, a remark that drew sharp criticism.
Russia also criticised wide-ranging Ukrainian strikes last month that it said were intended to disrupt its general elections.
What to watch is whether the Abu Dhabi round is formally confirmed and who attends, and whether the technical-level trilateral format proposed in Oslo and accepted in St Petersburg produces the first direct US–Russia–Ukraine meeting since February.
