Russia is ready “in principle” to resume talks with Ukraine and the United States on ending the war, Vladimir Putin’s adviser Yuri Ushakov has said, according to the BBC. He suggested that another round could take place around 10 November in Abu Dhabi, but the meeting has not been definitively agreed.
Ushakov was speaking after Putin met US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on 21 October. According to the BBC report, the Russian adviser stressed that negotiations should address the creation of a security framework for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict.
US proposal for technical-level talks
A separate indication of a possible return to negotiations came from an anonymous US official who spoke to the BBC. The official said Witkoff and Jared Kushner had proposed a three-way meeting between the US, Russia and Ukraine at a technical level. According to that account, Ukrainian representatives in Oslo and Russian representatives in St Petersburg had accepted the proposal.
That account of acceptance comes from the US official, rather than separate, direct confirmations from all participants. It is also distinct from Ushakov’s public statement: the Russian representative described a willingness to hold talks and a possible date, not the start of negotiations.
The BBC reports that Ukraine and its European allies are pressing for negotiations to resume, with the aim of ending the war whose full-scale phase began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022. At this stage, the diplomatic statements do not mean that talks have resumed or that an agreement to end the fighting has been reached.
