PUTIN AGREES TO MORE TALKS—UKRAINE IS STILL WAITING FOR HIM TO STOP THE WAR
Another meeting. Another proposal. Another Russian promise to consider more talks.
After Steve Witkoff met Putin near St. Petersburg on October 21, the Kremlin said Russia had agreed “in principle” to resume negotiations with Ukraine and the United States after November 10.
Apparently, the Kremlin’s most reliable production line remains the manufacture of future meetings.
Witkoff brought proposals developed following discussions with Zelenskyy and European partners in Oslo. Moscow’s announcement offers a possible next step, but no ceasefire has been announced and no settlement agreed.
Ukraine has already offered reciprocal restraint on energy strikes. Russia has rejected a separate energy truce. That refusal matters more than another carefully worded expression of willingness to negotiate.
Talks can serve a purpose. They can also give Moscow more time while its forces continue attacking. Until Russian commitments produce observable changes, there is ample reason to question whether this is diplomacy advancing—or another round of delay.
Russia also released Stephen Hubbard, the 74-year-old retired American teacher whom Washington had designated wrongfully detained. His freedom is welcome news. He deserves to return to his family, recover and live beyond the prison walls where he should never have been held.
With the U.S. midterms approaching, Trump gains a favorable headline from that release. The political benefit is clear; it does not establish his private motive or turn Hubbard’s homecoming into evidence of Russian progress toward peace.
Welcome home, Stephen.
Now the administration must demand results for the Ukrainians still living under Russian attack. Putin has demonstrated that he can release a prisoner when he chooses. He must now demonstrate a willingness to stop the killing—not simply reserve another date to discuss it.