Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington's latest push to stop Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War Two.
The negotiations in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, the ninth time that Witkoff has met Putin in person, began with a goodwill gesture from Russia - the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired US school teacher held in Russia whom US President Trump had asked the Kremlin chief to release.
Wednesday's encounter unfolded amid concerns in Kyiv and among its allies that the United States is backing away from Ukraine, at times holding back real-time intelligence on Russian attacks and hobbling Ukraine's military communications.
The latest talks also came more than two years since Trump promised in his successful election campaign to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
The Kremlin said the new 3-way peace talks, which would be at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would be focused on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended. They could begin sometime on or after November 10, it said. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
The Kremlin was less upbeat, however, about the outcome of talks Witkoff had held a day earlier in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the leaders of Finland and Norway, and European and NATO representatives. Witkoff told Putin the talks had been characterised by "some degree of momentum" and a US official said Ukraine had brought new ideas and proposals.
"These nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the St Petersburg meeting - which lasted nearly three hours.
POSSIBLE MEETING BETWEEN TRUMP, PUTIN AND XI
Ukraine and Russia remain far apart when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal, though Trump has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to strike some kind of a deal. He said on Tuesday it was time for Ukraine to end the war or face "a very bad thing."
Putin also used Wednesday's talks to offer to help Trump deal with Iran, saying Russia had a decades-long relationship with Tehran which it has repeatedly offered to leverage to address US concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. Putin told Witkoff it was possible and necessary to get a deal with Tehran, the Kremlin said.
Russia could also supply vast quantities of fertiliser to the United States to help US farmers, the Russian president told Witkoff.
A potential meeting in China next month with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was also discussed. The Kremlin said Beijing was already preparing what it said would be the first meeting of its kind in history.
'NEW IDEAS'
Putin has shown few signs of compromising on his central war aims, which include full Russian control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, no NATO membership for Kyiv, and an overall peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special investment envoy, was also present at the talks with Witkoff and the Kremlin said that major joint economic projects had been discussed, including some that were close to being realised.
Witkoff said he had brought some documents with him containing various ideas for a potential peace deal for Putin to review, and that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, also wanted to convey some ideas to Putin. Kushner later joined the meeting remotely by phone.
Zelenskiy said he hoped to discuss key issues on how to end the war during a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any Putin-Zelenskiy meeting would need to be painstakingly prepared in advance by aides to make it worthwhile.
FRAYING US-UKRAINE TIES
US-Ukraine ties have deteriorated sharply since Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia earlier this month to help lower prices in the United States. High fuel costs since he launched strikes on Iran have hurt his Republicans ahead of November legislative elections.
Since the diesel deal, Ukraine has complained of disruption to some intelligence sharing and to its use of the Starshield military satellite system, though Zelenskiy said that Tuesday's Oslo meeting had reached an agreement to resolve those issues.
Citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that billionaire Elon Musk had last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service that Ukraine relies on to track Russian ballistic missile strikes.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Musk has said any such decision is taken by the US military or the president. Trump has said he was not responsible and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Wednesday that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv's ability to access Starlink.
Source: Reuters
-Agencies
