(AFP) – Russia is open to resuming trilateral talks with Washington and Kyiv towards ending the Ukraine war, the Kremlin said after Vladimir Putin met US special envoy Steve Witkoff Wednesday. However, the Kremlin decried the lack of “substance” in the new Ukrainian and European approaches. Moscow also announced that a summit between Putin, US President Donald Trump, and China’s Xi Jinping was being prepared in China’s Shenzhen for next month, calling it “the first such meeting in history.”
Putin held over three hours of talks with Witkoff in his home city of Saint Petersburg, a day after the US official described his meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway as “productive.” Witkoff stated on social media afterward that the talks were “constructive” but emphasized that “there is still important work left to do.” Discussions will continue between the US, Ukraine, and Russia at the technical level.
As Witkoff arrived in Russia, Moscow released a US citizen, Stephen Hubbard, and indicated it would soon begin diesel shipments to America. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also participated in the talks with Putin remotely. Despite over a year of US-led negotiations to end the Ukraine war—initiated by Moscow in 2022—there has yet to be a significant breakthrough, with tens of thousands killed.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, including AFP, that Witkoff briefed Putin on “some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv” from the Oslo meeting, though he added that “there wasn’t really much substance in them.” Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and asserted that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine.
Ushakov stated that a “first-ever” China-US-Russia meeting is “being prepared” in China, although he did not specify the topics for discussion. Kyiv and its European allies have expressed concerns that the White House could strike a deal without their input. “I always said that we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics. But don’t speak about us without us, please,” Zelensky told US media Fox News on Wednesday.
Witkoff held his ninth meeting with Putin as Russia continued to bombard Ukrainian cities ahead of winter, amidst a bitter feud between Trump and Zelensky. “We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you’ll read that at your leisure,” Witkoff told Putin in Saint Petersburg’s Konstantinovsky Palace before their talks. The US envoy expressed his desire for trilateral talks to resume, something the Kremlin later confirmed it agreed to.
Ushakov mentioned that the talks would re-open in mid-November, aiming to focus on post-war security. As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Kyiv reported that Russian strikes had killed at least four people, including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region. Russian occupation authorities in the Lugansk region reported that a Ukrainian drone strike on a phone company had killed two people.
Witkoff informed Putin that he observed “some degree of momentum” in the US-led talks following his meeting with Zelensky. Zelensky said he was waiting to see “whether the American side manages to hear something new from Russia today.” The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting on Tuesday followed several days of tension between Washington and Kyiv and calls from Trump for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced.
Witkoff also conveyed Washington’s gratitude for a diesel deal, which resulted in the easing of US sanctions on Moscow to allow Russian fuel access to the United States. This deal has sparked outrage in Kyiv and across Europe, as it is seen as a strategy to lower fuel prices for American consumers ahead of the challenging midterm elections next month. Witkoff stated that Washington was interested in further “business and economic cooperation” with Russia when the war concludes.
“We even talk about it now openly with the Ukrainians to give them some sort of sense about what the possibilities will be when this whole conflict is over,” he noted. Kyiv has urged Western nations to increase pressure on Moscow and refrain from lifting sanctions. Ahead of the talks, Putin announced the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American who had been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine in 2022 and subsequently sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Trump had previously requested Putin free Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had always denied the accusations of being a “mercenary” fighting for Ukraine.
© 2024 AFP
