Russian President Vladimir Putin told US envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday that Russia was ready to resume trilateral talks with the US and Ukraine next month.
“Our president informed Steve Witkoff that we are ready in principle to resume the above-mentioned trilateral talks around November 10 on the main subject,” said Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, according to Russia’s TASS news agency. “This topic is about building a security system for Russia and Ukraine.”
During Witkoff’s visit, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old US citizen who was detained by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2022 and held on charges of acting as a foreign mercenary for Ukraine, a move that’s seen as a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration.
“Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return – an unprecedented situation for Russia. There was no “swap” necessary for this release.”
Witkoff’s visit to Russia came after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European officials in Norway to discuss a new proposal to end the war. Details of the proposal are unclear, but Zelensky said that the idea of NATO Article 5-style security guarantees was discussed.
Earlier this month, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that the potential deal being discussed would involve the US and European nations giving Ukraine a guarantee that they would respond militarily if Russia attacked again, an arrangement that Russia would almost certainly not accept. The idea would be to offer Russia economic incentives to get Moscow to make concessions, but Russian officials maintain they won’t back down on their core demands, which include some form of Ukrainian neutrality and Ukraine ceding territory.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia would listen to the US proposals but wouldn’t agree to any concessions. “We’ll see what they propose. If they propose something that benefits us economically and financially then why not? But it should not involve any political concessions on our part, and we also should not expect a political situation to emerge that will favor us in all global affairs. We must rely only on ourselves,” he said.
