Russia told US envoy Steve Witkoff it is ready in principle to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US around mid-November, while missile and drone attacks on Kyiv continued overnight.

Russia has agreed in principle to resume US-mediated trilateral talks with Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after President Vladimir Putin met US special envoy Steve Witkoff at Constantine Palace in St Petersburg. The concession came with a caveat: Moscow's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters there was little "substance" in the proposals Witkoff carried from Kyiv and European capitals.

What was agreed

Ushakov said Putin told Witkoff Russia was "in principle, ready to resume the mentioned talks", which could take place in November, possibly around 10 November in Abu Dhabi, with postwar security for Russia and Ukraine as the central topic. He indicated the format would be technical rather than a leaders' summit. Witkoff, on his ninth trip to Russia for talks with Putin, described the three-hour meeting as "constructive" but conceded that "there is still important work to do". Jared Kushner took part by video link.

There was no sign of movement on Moscow's core demands. The Kremlin continues to insist on full control of the parts of the Donetsk region its forces have not captured and has rejected repeated calls for a ceasefire, according to RFE/RL.

The proposals that fell flat

Witkoff arrived in St Petersburg a day after meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Norway and Finland in Oslo. Zelensky said those discussions covered "strong" security guarantees for Ukraine and proposals for an energy ceasefire; he told Fox News that he would accept a deal freezing the war along the current front line — "freeze and stop" — with security guarantees discussed afterwards.

Ushakov's verdict on the package was dismissive. He said Witkoff had briefed Putin on "some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv" and that "there wasn't really much substance in them". Putin also repeated his claim that Russian forces hold the "strategic initiative" along the front line, a claim Ukraine and its European allies dispute.

Trump's optimism, and a prisoner release

President Donald Trump said the world was "the closest we've been" to ending the war, without offering evidence for the assessment. Hours before the Putin meeting, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American former teacher held for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Trump said no swap was required. Witkoff's description of Putin as a "humanitarian" for the release drew sharp criticism at home, including from Republican senator Thom Tillis.

The fighting has not paused

Diplomacy has not translated into calm on the ground. Missiles struck Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday, a day after an evening attack injured six people and damaged homes, a petrol station and transport equipment, according to Reuters and local officials. Moscow's mayor said 630 drones were launched toward the region overnight, most of them intercepted, with two people wounded.

Kyiv's air defences remain under severe strain after three-way talks were suspended in February and Western interceptor supplies ran short. Trump has in recent days paused some sanctions on Moscow, agreed to buy Russian diesel and publicly questioned Zelensky's position — moves that have eased pressure on the Kremlin and widened a rift with Kyiv and European allies. Zelensky said after the Oslo meeting that US intelligence sharing on Russian missile strikes had resumed, following Ukrainian complaints that it had been withheld.

What to watch

The timing of any resumed talks — after the US midterm elections — and the level at which they are held will indicate whether Washington's push has produced more than a procedural restart. A possible meeting between Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec summit in China next month is also being watched in Moscow, where some commentators have billed it as a new Yalta. For now, the gap between what Kyiv and its European partners are offering and what Moscow says it will accept remains wide.