ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Diya TV) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to resume U.S.-mediated talks with Ukraine around Nov. 10, the Kremlin said Wednesday, but Moscow and Kyiv have not agreed on a date or shown movement on the core terms of a settlement.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said the proposed talks could take place in Abu Dhabi at a technical level and focus on security arrangements for both countries after the war. The statement followed Putin’s nearly three-hour meeting with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff at Konstantin Palace outside St. Petersburg. It was their ninth in-person meeting.
Witkoff arrived with documents outlining possible peace proposals, according to the Kremlin’s account of the meeting. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, later joined by phone to share additional ideas. Witkoff described his Oslo discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders as showing “some degree of momentum.” Ushakov said the proposals did not fully satisfy Moscow.
The Oslo talks took place Tuesday and included Norway’s prime minister, Finland’s president and Kushner. Zelenskyy said the participants discussed security guarantees and that the U.S. side agreed those guarantees must be strong. He has said a meeting with Putin and Trump could help address the main issues blocking an end to the war.
The latest proposal would restart a process that produced little progress on the hardest questions. Earlier U.S.-brokered rounds in Abu Dhabi and Geneva secured prisoner exchanges, but left territorial and security disputes unresolved. Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up the parts of the Donetsk region it still controls and has opposed Ukraine joining NATO. Kyiv has rejected surrendering territory and has called for guarantees against another Russian invasion.
Russia’s announcement also followed the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American former teacher who had been imprisoned in Russia for more than four years. Russian authorities convicted him in 2024 of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine; the U.S. government had designated him wrongfully detained. Ushakov said Putin pardoned Hubbard on humanitarian grounds. Trump said he had asked Putin to release him and that no prisoner exchange took place.
Putin and Witkoff also discussed possible U.S.-Russia economic projects, Russian fertilizer supplies to American farmers and cooperation on Iran. The Kremlin said they discussed a possible meeting among Trump, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China next month. None of those discussions produced a publicly announced agreement.
The proposed November talks remain tentative. Ushakov described Moscow as ready “in principle”; the Kremlin has not announced a confirmed date, and Kyiv has not publicly accepted the proposed Abu Dhabi meeting. A restart would reopen diplomacy, but the positions each side has stated on territory and security remain far apart.
