Putin Agrees to Three-Way Ukraine Peace Talks Following Meetings With U.S. Envoys
Russia and Ukraine have accepted a proposal to participate in trilateral talks alongside the United States as diplomatic efforts intensify to bring an end to the ongoing conflict. A White House official confirmed the agreement following meetings in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, where special envoys met with senior Russian leadership.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin. The meeting also included Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. According to the White House official, the U.S. representatives proposed a technical-level trilateral meeting between the three nations, a proposal that had been accepted by Ukrainian officials in Oslo the previous day and subsequently accepted by Russian leadership.
Ushakov informed reporters that Putin had agreed in principle to return to trilateral negotiations with the United States and Ukraine, indicating that peace talks could resume after November 10. Prior to their meeting in St. Petersburg, Kushner and Witkoff had briefed Putin on progress made during discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday. In addition to scheduling the upcoming trilateral discussions, the talks in Russia covered a post-war economic and prosperity plan as well as broader European security architecture.
The White House official described the recent discussions in Oslo and St. Petersburg as reflecting a positive and constructive spirit, marked by strong cooperation and a shared determination to achieve a comprehensive and durable peace, while noting that substantial work remains.
Concurrent with the diplomatic discussions, U.S. officials secured the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American citizen, Air Force veteran, and retired teacher who had been detained in Russia for more than four years on mercenary charges. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Putin had agreed to release Hubbard following a direct telephone conversation between the two leaders the previous week. Hubbard was identified as the final American officially designated as wrongfully detained by Russia and represents the third American prisoner released by the country during Trump’s current term.
In his announcement, Trump emphasized that the release was achieved without requiring any concessions or prisoner swaps from the United States, calling it an unprecedented situation for Russia. Hubbard spoke with the president by phone while traveling back to the United States to reunite with his family, prompting Trump to reiterate his administration’s ongoing commitment to securing the release of Americans detained abroad.
