US special envoy Steve Witkoff discussed a resumption of peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine followed by a possible summit between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping next month, according to Russian officials.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after the Wednesday meeting in St Petersburg between Witkoff and Putin that establishing a “security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends” was the main issue Moscow was ready to negotiate on, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Witkoff’s trip, his ninth visit to Russia, is part of a pivot towards Putin in the US’s push to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that has alarmed Kyiv and its European allies.
Russia also released a US citizen on Wednesday, with Trump noting that the US was “not asked to give anything in return”.
Trump’s envoy and Putin discussed resuming the talks with Ukraine in mid-November, and a possible leaders’ summit between China, Russia and the US at the Apec forum in Shenzhen next month, Ushakov said, adding that Beijing, which is hosting Apec, had already begun preparations for a meeting.
Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff held talks in Russia. Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
On Tuesday Witkoff met Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other European leaders in Norway, with the Ukrainian leader signalling willingness to resume talks with Russia and the US, potentially advancing to a leaders’ meeting if progress was made, according to an official familiar with the talks.
Ukraine and the US also advanced on security guarantees, which are a Kyiv demand for the peace process to move forward. But the official said expectations remained measured given Russia’s limited willingness so far to engage seriously in negotiations.
A US official said Russia accepted a proposal put forward by Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to hold technical talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine agreed to the idea during the talks in Oslo, they added.
In their talks with Putin on Wednesday, Trump’s envoys updated the Russian leader on the progress made in talks with Zelenskiy, the official said. Witkoff and Kushner, who dialled into the talks virtually, also discussed a postwar economic and prosperity plan, European security architecture and plans for the upcoming trilateral meeting.
The official described the two days of talks as “positive and constructive” while noting that important work still remains.
Images of Witkoff at the meeting with Putin showed him with handwritten notes that read, in part, “I feel momentum. Need to build on that” and “business deal”.
US-brokered talks with Ukraine have been on hold since the war in the Middle East began in late February. Russia has since paid lip service to the US’s diplomatic efforts and rejected Trump’s push for an immediate ceasefire or a moratorium on striking each side’s energy infrastructure.
Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel this month while putting pressure on Ukraine to end its long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries, aiming to tame global fuel prices ahead of US midterm elections next month.
The shift has driven Trump’s relationship with Zelenskiy to its lowest point since their infamous spat in the Oval Office last year.
Putin hailed the diesel deal, which he said had driven global prices down 5-6 per cent. Commenting on the deal, Putin told Witkoff on Wednesday that Russia was preparing to dispatch several tankers, with the first carrying 40,000 tonnes of fuel. It would leave “in two or three days”, he said.
Russia is interested in resuming economic co-operation with the US, Putin said, citing the possibility of sending “large quantities of fertiliser supplies” to the US market.
The Ukrainian president has in the past week wrestled with a brutal degradation of an already-fraught relationship with Trump, who insisted Zelenskiy should “get somebody else to negotiate”.
But Zelenskiy struck an upbeat note following the talks in Oslo, saying he had received “positive signals” from the US and that intelligence sharing on early missile warning had been restored.
However, speed limits on the Starlink terminals used by Ukraine’s military to fly drones into Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine and to operate interceptors targeting long-range drones remained active on Tuesday, with no changes reported the following day, Zelenskiy said.
Washington has repeatedly denied throttling the crucial communication systems to prevent drones from flying faster than 160kph, but Zelenskiy insisted it was deliberate.
Speaking on Fox News, Zelenskiy said Ukraine would be ready to accept a ceasefire that would freeze the fighting along the current front line, Kyiv’s long-standing proposal that Moscow has repeatedly rejected.
“Freeze, and stop. This is the minimum we need from Russia today,” Zelenskiy said.
Stephen Hubbard, pictured two years ago, after being sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison. Photograph: Moscow City Court/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it released a jailed US citizen on humanitarian grounds. Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, had been detained for more than four years after being captured by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Hubbard “is on his way back home and will soon be with his family”.
“The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return,” he added.
Witkoff told Putin in comments about Hubbard’s release broadcast on state TV: “You talk so much about my president, president Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”
Hubbard, who is in his 70s, was captured by Russian forces from Izyum in eastern Ukraine in April 2022, where he had lived for several years while the city was under occupation.
He was sentenced to almost seven years’ imprisonment, accused of fighting on behalf of Ukraine – charges that Hubbard’s lawyer denied. He was deemed wrongfully detained by the US government in 2025.
Separately, Russia’s FSB internal security agency said on Wednesday it had detained a German citizen who had served in Ukraine’s armed forces. The announcement followed last week’s detentions of a Japanese journalist accused of espionage and a Swede whom the FSB also accused of serving in Ukraine’s military.
Earlier this month Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s security council, publicly suggested Moscow might need to detain more Europeans and Americans to secure Russians’ release abroad.
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Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff held talks in Russia. Photograph: Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP