Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Moscow is willing “in principle” to re-enter negotiations with Ukraine and the United States near Nov. 10, with post-conflict security for both countries as the proposed round’s main topic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Oct. 21, and Ushakov said the meeting lasted almost three hours. He said Witkoff relayed ideas developed in Oslo with Ukrainian and European officials. Ushakov described the proposals as having limited value for ending the war, while the Kremlin’s public account did not disclose their contents.
The Ukrainian presidential office said Oct. 20 that Kyiv asked Washington to present its proposals to Moscow after the Oslo meetings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised a possible meeting among the three countries’ leaders to handle matters he said required their involvement. Ukraine’s readout named energy issues, air-defense measures, security guarantees and a partial cease-fire among Oslo topics.
Kyiv’s suggestion and Witkoff’s description pointed to different formats for further diplomacy. Zelenskyy spoke of a leaders’ meeting, while Witkoff referred to technical-level work by the three governments; the public statements did not set out a shared sequence.
In a post on X, Witkoff said officials from all three governments would keep talking through working-level channels. He called the recent meetings constructive and said considerable work remained.
The Associated Press counted three earlier three-country meetings during 2026, with Abu Dhabi hosting two and Geneva one; it said prisoner swaps were the only widely reported result. AP also reported that Ushakov later described the Oslo ideas on Russian state television as moving in the right direction, while maintaining that Moscow remained dissatisfied.
EconoTimes previously covered Ushakov’s mid-November window for talks after the same Putin-Witkoff meeting. Ushakov gave only an approximate window; no public joint announcement established a mutually accepted date, venue or agenda.
