(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) According to the Associated Press, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Wednesday (October 21) to resume trilateral negotiations with the United States and Ukraine aimed at ending the Russo-Ukrainian war. Putin's foreign affairs assistant Yuri Ushakov told reporters after Putin met in St. Petersburg with U.S. President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff that Putin had agreed "in principle" to resume trilateral talks after November 10.
Ushakov said the three-party talks will focus on "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends."
The Kremlin said the talks lasted about three hours. At the start of the talks, Putin thanked Trump and Witkov for their efforts to end the war.
Witkov: Peace talks have "a certain amount of momentum"
The meeting between Putin and Witkov was held at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg. Ushakov and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev were also present. Witkopf said Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will participate in the discussion via video link.
Before the meeting, Witkov said he would brief Putin on the meeting held in Oslo the day before. He called the meeting "productive" and said there was "a level of momentum" in the peace talks. He also thanked Putin for lifting a ban on Russian diesel exports, saying the move would help lower prices for American farmers and truckers. However, this move has caused dissatisfaction among some US lawmakers.
Putin said he was ready to consider the prospect of restoring U.S.-Russian economic relations and was willing to discuss a U.S.-led conflict with Iran. He said Moscow was willing to use its special relationship with Tehran to help achieve peace.
Russia on Wednesday released Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher who was imprisoned on charges of serving as a mercenary in Ukraine, Witkov said. Trump had previously asked Putin to release the man. This appears to be a goodwill gesture from the Kremlin.
The Kremlin also said Putin would also meet on Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who is meeting other senior Russian officials in St. Petersburg. Russia has been strengthening ties with China, and the two countries last month jointly rejected a U.S. proposal for U.N. experts to continue to monitor sanctions on Iran.
Oslo: 'Real progress'
The day before Witkov's visit to Russia, he had just met with Ukrainian President Zelensky and some European leaders in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Zelensky said on Tuesday that the agenda of the meeting included Ukraine's future security, the ownership of occupied territories, post-war reconstruction and the possibility of a ceasefire.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who attended the Oslo meeting, said late Tuesday that the meeting had "made real progress." Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) on Wednesday: "I think we may have entered a new stage now, and the Russians are also looking for opportunities for a diplomatic solution." He also revealed that Witkov will return to Oslo for further consultations after his visit to Russia.
Zelensky said that freezing the conflict was the "minimum" Russia needed to do to end the war. "Now we have to freeze the conflict, and I think that's the realistic way to end this war," he said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Wednesday.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow is willing to listen to new U.S. proposals on Ukraine but does not expect any "miracles" from Washington.
Trump pressures Zelensky
The relationship between Trump and Zelensky has deteriorated again recently. "We want Zelensky to make a deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. "We gave Ukraine a lot, but we got nothing but sorrow, death and a huge loss of money." He also said that if a deal was not reached, "I think that would be a very bad thing."
Amid concerns that Washington will abandon Ukraine, Zelensky said Ukraine had once again received advance warning of incoming Russian missiles from its partners. He said allies had failed to provide adequate warning during previous attacks. The change came after Zelensky communicated with U.S. officials, including a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The war is still going on
It has been more than four and a half years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Trump administration has made no significant progress since early last year in its push to end the war, and there are no signs of an imminent breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine still have huge differences on the terms of the peace talks. The two armies are in a stalemate on the battlefield and launch long-range strikes against each other every day.
Trump announced on October 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure. But since then, Russia has continued to bomb Ukraine’s power grid, and Ukraine has also attacked Russian oil refineries. On Sunday, Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of the largest air strikes since the war began, setting an oil export terminal and an oil depot in St. Petersburg on fire.
According to a report from the Kiev city's military management department, Russia's attack on Kiev early Wednesday morning killed three people, injured 12 people, and damaged 10 residential buildings. Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said that Russian troops attacked energy facilities in Kiev and three other cities in the early morning of Wednesday. On the outskirts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, a drone exploded in a residential area, killing two people and injuring 11 others.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Russian military attacked a warehouse, a substation and a bulk carrier heading to the Ukrainian port of Odessa that night. The Russian Ministry of Defense also stated that its air defense system intercepted 373 Ukrainian drones that night in multiple regions of Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula and the Black Sea.
