SAINT PETERSBURG, Oct 22: Russia said Wednesday it was ready to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States after Vladimir Putin met a US envoy and freed a detained American -- but Moscow played down the chances of a deal to end the conflict.
US President Donald Trump said it was "the closest we've been" to ending the war while his envoy Steve Witkoff praised Putin as a "humanitarian" for freeing US citizen Stephen Hubbard.
But the Kremlin warned after Witkoff's meeting with Putin in Saint Petersburg that there was little "substance" in the Ukrainian and European peace proposals that the US diplomat brought with him.
Witkoff had flown to Russia from a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo on Tuesday, which was aimed at smoothing over a bitter rift between Zelensky and Trump.
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner also took part in the talks with Putin remotely.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, including AFP, that Russia was "in principle, ready to resume" the trilateral talks in mid-November -- after crucial US midterm elections -- and that the Kremlin wanted them to focus on post-war security.
Ushakov said 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".
A summit between Putin, Trump and China's Xi Jinping was also being prepared in China's Shenzhen for next month, Ushakov said, calling it "the first such meeting in history."
- 'Work left to do' -
During their three-hour meeting, Witkoff praised Putin for granting Trump's request to free Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had always denied the charges he was a "mercenary" fighting for Ukraine.
"You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian -- you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that," Witkoff said.
Witkoff said on social media afterward that the Putin talks were "constructive" but that "there is still important work left to do." Discussions would continue between the US, Ukraine and Russia at the technical level, he added.
Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine.
Trump came to power in January 2025 promising to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours -- but over a year of US-led talks have failed to produce a breakthrough, with tens of thousands killed.
In recent days a frustrated Trump has once again pivoted away from Ukraine and back to Putin, trumpeting what he said was a deal for Russia to sell diesel and reduce prices sent soaring by his Iran war.
Trump also delayed the imposition of sanctions on Russia's war machine -- a decision he defended on Wednesday as necessary to secure Hubbard's release.
"If you would've put those sanctions on... you could forget about him. You'd never see him again," Trump told reporters at the White House.
- Russian strikes kill four -
Witkoff's ninth meeting with Putin came as Russia continued to pound Ukrainian cities ahead of winter.
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.
In Ukraine, Zelensky said that Kyiv backed resuming trilateral talks.
"The American side is proposing to organize this meeting as soon as possible. We are in favour of it," he told journalists.
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 told Putin he saw "some degree of momentum" in the US-led talks after meeting Zelensky in Oslo.
The US envoy also told Putin that Washington was "grateful" for the diesel deal, which sparked outrage in Kyiv and across Europe.
The deal has been seen as a way to try to lower fuel prices for American consumers ahead of the US midterms, in which Trump's Republicans could lose control of Congress.