Zelenskyy Confirms Trilateral Peace Talks With Russia and the US Will Take Place in November

Ukraine's president said on Sunday that a three-way meeting with Russia and the United States will take place in November, the first concrete step toward restarting peace talks that have been stalled for months. Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the plan, Euronews reported, as the war entered its fifth year.

There is still no date and no venue. What exists is a sequence: US envoy Steve Witkoff met Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo on Tuesday, then saw Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday, the meeting we described in our earlier report. Sunday's confirmation is Kyiv's answer to what came out of that second meeting.

When will the Ukraine, Russia and US talks happen?

Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Russia agreed in principle to restart talks after 10 November, according to Euronews. CBS News, citing the Kremlin's account of the St Petersburg meeting, described the timing as early November, so the reporting differs by a few days. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv has named a city. Ushakov said the agenda would centre on building a security system for Russia and Ukraine once the fighting ends.

What is Zelenskyy asking for?

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to talk. He said territorial questions have to be settled at the level of leaders, while other issues can go to technical working groups, and that the aim is to end the war and prepare a meeting of leaders. Speaking to Fox News earlier in the week, he rejected any settlement drawn up by the United States, Russia and China without Kyiv, saying "Don't talk about us without us," and noted that any deal would need approval from Ukraine's parliament, CBS reported.