Russia said it was prepared in principle to restart trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States around Nov. 10 after President Vladimir Putin discussed the war and diesel supplies with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said the proposed discussions would address a postwar security system for Russia and Ukraine. The Associated Press reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supported a swift resumption of talks. Ushakov did not give a confirmed meeting date or venue, and no peace agreement was announced.
The meeting followed Russia’s release of American Stephen Hubbard. The Kremlin said Hubbard had been pardoned after requests from President Donald Trump and other U.S. administration officials, and that Hubbard was handed to Witkoff at Pulkovo Airport. The Associated Press reported that Hubbard had spent more than four years in custody and was sentenced in 2024 to nearly seven years after a closed court proceeding. AP also reported that his lawyers disputed Russia’s claim that he fought for Ukraine and that the Biden administration had designated him wrongfully detained.
The Kremlin transcript records Witkoff telling Putin, “You are a humanitarian also, sir.”
Putin projected that a tanker carrying 40,000 tonnes would set off within two or three days, while financial arrangements remained unfinished. Witkoff cited U.S. farmers and truckers as possible beneficiaries of the supply, and the Kremlin described the arrangement as beneficial to both countries.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License 135 on Oct. 9, allowing qualifying transactions in Russian-origin diesel, including U.S. imports, through 12:01 a.m. EDT on April 7, 2027. Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 on Sept. 18. His Oct. 16 executive order waived several provisions of the act while saying measures under earlier executive orders remained in effect.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. The warrant concerns alleged war crimes and is not a conviction. The Kremlin’s proposed window for renewed talks remains around Nov. 10, with no date or venue confirmed.
