OMM Newsroom
Ukraine supports a US push to hold trilateral talks with Russia as soon as possible, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday, as Moscow signalled it was ready to resume negotiations, Anadolu Agency reported.
Zelenskyy told journalists that Kyiv had received feedback from Washington on the outcome of talks earlier in the day between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. His remarks were reported by Ukrainian media, including state news agency Ukrinform.
“We have received feedback that Russia supports a trilateral meeting at the level of our teams. The American side proposes holding it as soon as possible. We support this,” Zelenskyy said.
He said he did not know the final dates for the meeting and that the teams would communicate to prepare its agenda.
“The agenda is clear: to end the war, bring peace closer, and prepare everything for a meeting at the level of the leaders – this is very important for everyone,” he said. Zelenskyy added that the US side had promised to arrange a meeting as soon as possible.
He was also quoted as saying the meeting would take place no later than early November. Ukraine’s negotiating team would support proposals for a ceasefire and humanitarian initiatives, including prisoner swaps, he said.
Zelenskyy expressed hope that Russia would honour its commitments concerning the trilateral meeting.
Russia says it is ready to resume talks in November
Putin hosted Witkoff on Wednesday in their ninth in-person meeting. Afterward, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters that Putin had conveyed Moscow’s readiness “in principle” to resume trilateral peace negotiations on Ukraine in November.
“Our president informed Steve Witkoff that we are, in principle, prepared to resume the aforementioned trilateral negotiations around the 10th of November,” Ushakov said after the talks at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg. He said the meeting lasted about three hours.
Ushakov said Moscow’s readiness for trilateral negotiations particularly concerned the creation of a post-war “security system” for Moscow and Kyiv.
Separately, Witkoff said on the US social media platform “X” that he and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had held “constructive” discussions in St. Petersburg and Oslo over the previous two days. He said the discussions would continue with trilateral talks “at the technical level.”
Russia and Ukraine last held US-mediated peace negotiations earlier this year, with three rounds of talks on Jan. 23-24, Feb. 4-5 and Feb. 17-18. The first two took place in Abu Dhabi and the third in Geneva.
