The Kremlin said on the 21st (local time) that US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin for about three hours at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg. According to Kyunghyang Shinmun and the Liberty Times, Putin agreed in principle to resume talks among Russia, Ukraine and the United States. Foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev attended, and Jared Kushner reportedly joined by video link.

Ushakov said talks could resume after November 10, with Abu Dhabi mentioned as a venue, and that the agenda would center on building a post-conflict security system for Russia and Ukraine. No firm date or venue has been fixed, and whether the session actually takes place depends on further coordination.

The trilateral talks were held in Abu Dhabi in January and February and in Geneva in February, but many assessments say they produced little beyond prisoner exchanges. Ushakov blamed Ukrainian attacks during parliamentary elections for the earlier breakdown. The new consent reopens a channel that had stalled, but it does not mean a deal has been reached.

What the meeting produced

Just before the meeting, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, 74, an American held for more than four years after Russian troops seized him in eastern Ukraine in April 2022. Witkoff called it a goodwill gesture, thanked Putin and said there was some momentum in the dialogue. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Hubbard was on his way home and that no swap had been necessary.

The United States has agreed to ease sanctions on Russian diesel sales, and Russian state media said the first shipment left on the 21st. Putin also signaled openness to restoring US-Russia economic ties and to a Russian mediating role in the Iran situation involving the United States. Some outlets reported that Putin floated a meeting with Trump in China in mid-November, but official confirmation from both sides has not been verified.

Issues still piled up

Russia's assessment was cool, however. Ushakov said the proposals Witkoff brought, shaped a day earlier in Oslo by Ukraine and Europeans, contained little that was useful. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would study them but that it would take a long time, and Russian state media pressed Ukraine to make the necessary decisions.

The biggest obstacle is format. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy keeps arguing that a meeting of himself, Putin and Trump is the way out of the deadlock, but Russia has not accepted it so far. A US official said both sides agreed to technical-level trilateral meetings for now. How positions on territory, security guarantees, a ceasefire and reconstruction might converge is not yet visible.

Attacks on energy sites are another variable. The energy ceasefire Trump announced earlier this month did not hold, Russia launched new missile strikes within hours, and neither side confirmed the deal. Trump criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian refining and oil facilities, while Zelenskyy is reported to have said the diesel measures weaken pressure on Russia.

Third-Party View and Outlook

Reaction in the United States is mixed. Axios reported that Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis criticized Witkoff for calling Putin a humanitarian. In Ukraine and Europe there is concern that Washington gave sanctions relief first and received only a promise to negotiate. Russia, for its part, keeps repeating that the door to dialogue is open but that Ukraine must accept reality.

Attention is also on China. Putin met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in St. Petersburg around the same time, and the Russian side said a meeting of the US, Russian and Chinese leaders is possible. Ukrainian officials oppose any arrangement that leaves them out, so interpretations of China's role are unlikely to converge soon. Whether the November round actually convenes should become clear when a date and format are set, possibly as early as next week.