Russia is open to resuming talks with the US and Ukraine after Putin met Witkoff, but the Kremlin sees little “substance” in new Ukrainian and European ideas.
SAINT PETERSBURG (Russia): Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday they were ready to resume trilateral talks with Washington, after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met both countries’ leaders, though the Kremlin decried little “substance” in new Ukrainian and European peace approaches.
Moscow also said a summit between President Vladimir Putin, US counterpart Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping was being prepared in China’s Shenzhen for next month, calling it “the first such meeting in history.”
Putin held over three hours of talks with Witkoff in his home city of Saint Petersburg, a day after what the US official called a “productive” meeting with Ukraine’s Zelensky in Norway.
Witkoff said on social media afterward that the talks were “constructive” but that “there is still important work left to do” and discussions would continue between the US, Ukraine and Russia at the technical level.
As Witkoff touched down in Russia, Moscow freed a US citizen — Stephen Hubbard — and said it would soon begin diesel shipments to America.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also took part in the talks with Putin remotely.
Over a year of US-led talks to end the Ukraine war — launched by Moscow in 2022 — have not yet led to a breakthrough, with tens of thousands killed.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, including AFP, that Witkoff briefed Putin on “some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv” from the Oslo meeting, adding though that “there wasn’t really much substance in them”.
Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.
‘Ideas’ towards a peace deal
Ushakov said a “first-ever” China-US-Russia meeting was “being prepared” in China, without saying what the leaders would discuss.
Kyiv and its European allies have voiced fears that the White House could strike a deal over their heads.
Witkoff held his ninth meeting with Putin as Russia continued to pound Ukrainian cities ahead of winter and amid a bitter feud between Trump and Zelensky.
The US envoy said he wanted trilateral talks to resume, something the Kremlin later said it agreed to.
Zelensky said that Kyiv backed resuming trilateral talks, telling journalists: “We have learned that Russia … is favourable to a trilateral meeting between our teams. The American side is proposing to organize this meeting as soon as possible. We are in favour of it.”
Ushakov said the talks would re-open in mid-November and that the Kremlin wanted them to focus on post-war security.
As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Kyiv said Russian strikes killed at least four people — including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region.
Russian occupation authorities in the Lugansk region, meanwhile, said a Ukrainian drone strike on a phone company had killed two people.
‘Momentum’ in talks
Witkoff told Putin he saw “some degree of momentum” in the US-led talks after meeting Zelensky.
The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting Tuesday followed days of friction between Washington and Kyiv, and calls from Trump for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced.
Witkoff also told Putin that Washington was “grateful” for a diesel deal, which saw US sanctions on Moscow eased to allow Russian fuel to flow to the United States, sparking outrage in Kyiv and across Europe.
The deal has been seen as a way to try to lower fuel prices for American consumers, as Trump’s Republican Party heads towards tough midterm elections next month.
Washington was interested in further “business and economic cooperation” with Russia when the war ends, Witkoff said.
“We even talk about it now openly with the Ukrainians to give them some sort of sense about what the possibilities will be when this whole conflict is over,” he said.
Kyiv has pleaded with Western countries to put more pressure on Moscow and not to lift sanctions.
Ahead of the talks, Putin announced that Stephen Hubbard, an American taken captive by Russian forces in Ukraine in 2022 and later sentenced to almost seven years in prison, had been freed.
Trump had asked the Russian leader to free Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had always denied the charges he was a “mercenary” fighting for Ukraine.