Putin agrees to trilateral talks with Ukraine, US to end war

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to resume trilateral negotiations with the United States and Ukraine aimed at ending the war, a Kremlin official said on Wednesday.

Moscow’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin agreed that peace talks would continue after November 10, following a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg.

Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday to discuss a proposal outlining security guarantees for Kyiv, economic recovery funding and other measures before travelling to Russia to present the document to Putin.

Ushakov said the future trilateral talks would focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.” A source had previously told The New York Post that the issue was among the items being considered in the peace proposal.

The development marks a shift in Putin’s position after the Russian leader resisted holding summits with US President Donald Trump and Zelensky to end the more than four-year war.

Trump had criticised Zelensky last week over Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy facilities, raising the possibility of excluding Ukraine from trilateral talks and instead inviting China and Russia to meet with the United States.

The US president has also complained that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries had disrupted global energy markets. On October 9, he announced a deal with Putin to waive sanctions and purchase some of Russia’s oil exports.

Credit: New York Post