A diplomatic channel that has been largely frozen for months may be reopening.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed “in principle” to resume three-way negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States after November 10, according to Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. The announcement followed a nearly three-hour meeting Wednesday between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg.
No trilateral negotiations between the three countries have taken place since February.
That makes Wednesday’s announcement significant — but it is not a peace agreement, a ceasefire, or even a guarantee that meaningful negotiations will succeed.
It is an agreement to get back to the table.
What Putin Apparently Agreed To
According to Ushakov, a new round of talks would focus on building a postwar security framework for both Russia and Ukraine.
The details of what that framework would actually involve remain unclear, and the two sides are still divided over fundamental questions surrounding territory, security guarantees, and the conditions for ending the war.
Witkoff traveled to Russia after discussions in Oslo involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Ukrainian officials said the talks focused on possible steps toward ending the war and potentially moving diplomacy toward a trilateral leaders’ meeting.
Ushakov said Witkoff brought Putin what he described as new approaches from Kyiv and European governments, although the Kremlin adviser claimed they contained little Moscow considered useful for resolving the conflict.
That reaction is an immediate reminder of how far apart the parties may still be.
Zelenskyy Wants the Talks Taken Higher
Zelenskyy has repeatedly argued that some of the war’s biggest disputes cannot be settled by lower-level delegations alone.
During earlier diplomacy involving American officials, the Ukrainian president said issues including territory would ultimately require negotiations at the leadership level. Ukraine has also continued pressing for long-term security guarantees and a strong Ukrainian military after any settlement.
Just one day before Witkoff’s meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy publicly said Ukraine had ideas for moving the process forward and identified a possible trilateral leaders’ meeting as one of them.
Whether Putin is prepared to go that far remains unanswered.
For now, the Kremlin has committed only in principle to restarting negotiations.
Washington Is Testing Whether Diplomacy Can Move Again
The development gives the Trump administration another opening in its effort to broker an end to a war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Witkoff has become a central figure in those negotiations, holding repeated meetings with both Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Wednesday’s meeting also opened with another notable development: Russia released American citizen Stephen Hubbard, a retired teacher who had been imprisoned in Russia for more than four years. Putin announced the release while meeting Witkoff.
The gesture added to the diplomatic atmosphere surrounding the meeting, although it does not resolve the far larger disputes blocking an agreement over Ukraine.
And the fighting itself has not stopped while the negotiations continue.
The Real Test Comes After November 10
The headline is that Putin has agreed to talk again.
The bigger story will be what Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington are actually prepared to put on the negotiating table once those talks begin.
The proposed discussions are expected to deal with the security structure that would follow the war — precisely the issue where some of the hardest disagreements are concentrated.
Ukraine wants credible protection against another Russian attack. Russia has its own demands over Ukraine’s military and security relationships. Territorial disputes remain unresolved.
So Wednesday’s announcement should be viewed for what it is: a potentially important diplomatic opening, but still only an opening.
After months without trilateral talks, simply returning Russia, Ukraine and the United States to the same negotiating process would represent movement.
Whether that movement produces a settlement — or another round of diplomacy that ends in deadlock — could start becoming clearer after November 10.
