US envoy Witkoff meets Putin as Kremlin signals new three-way talks in November

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington's latest push to stop Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

The negotiations in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, the ninth time that Witkoff has met Putin in person, began with a goodwill gesture from Russia - the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired US school teacher held in Russia whom US President Trump had asked the Kremlin chief to release.

Wednesday's encounter unfolded amid concerns in Kyiv and among its allies that the United States is backing away from Ukraine, at times holding back real-time intelligence on Russian attacks and hobbling Ukraine's military communications.

The latest talks also came more than two years since Trump promised in his successful election campaign to end the conflict within 24 hours.

Kremlin hints at three-way peace talks

The Kremlin said the new three-way peace talks, which would be at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would be focused on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the conflict ended. They could begin sometime on or after November 10, it said. 

The last US-mediated ​peace ⁠talks took place in February before the United States and ⁠Israel ​launched a war ​against Iran.

The Kremlin was less upbeat, however, about the outcome of talks Witkoff had held a day earlier in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leaders of Finland and Norway, and European and NATO representatives. 

Witkoff told Putin the talks had been characterized by "some degree of momentum" and a US official said Ukraine had brought new ideas and proposals.

"These nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the St Petersburg meeting - which lasted nearly three hours.

Kyiv and its European allies have voiced fears that the White House could strike a deal over their heads.

"I always said that we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics. But don't speak about us without us, please," Zelenskyy told US media Fox News.  

Russia pushes for US-Iran deal

Ukraine and Russia remain far apart when it comes to the terms of any possible peace deal, though Trump has recently intensified pressure on Ukraine to strike some kind of a deal. He said it was time for Ukraine to end the conflict or face "a very bad thing."

Putin also used the talks to offer to help Trump deal with Iran, saying Russia had a decades-long relationship with Tehran which it has repeatedly offered to leverage to address US concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Putin told Witkoff it was possible and necessary to get a deal with Tehran, the Kremlin said.

Russia could also supply vast quantities of fertilizer to the United States to help US farmers, the Russian president told Witkoff.

As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Kyiv said Russian strikes killed at least four people - including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region.  

Russian occupation authorities in the Luhansk region, meanwhile, said a Ukrainian drone strike on a phone company had killed two people.  

Signs of compromise

Putin has shown few signs of compromising on his key aims for the offensive, which include full Russian control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, no NATO membership for Kyiv, and an overall peace deal rather than a temporary ceasefire.

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special investment envoy, was also present at the talks with Witkoff and the Kremlin said that major joint economic projects had been discussed, including some that were close to being realized.

Witkoff said he had brought some documents with him containing various ideas for a potential peace deal for Putin to review, and that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, also wanted to convey some ideas to Putin. Kushner later joined the meeting remotely by phone.

Zelenskyy said he hoped to discuss key issues on how to end the offensive during a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any Putin-Zelenskyy meeting would need to be painstakingly prepared in advance by aides to make it worthwhile.

Impact of US-Russia diesel deal

US-Ukraine ties have deteriorated sharply since Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia earlier this month to help lower prices in the United States. High fuel costs since he launched strikes on Iran have hurt his Republican party ahead of November legislative elections.

Since the diesel deal, Ukraine has complained of disruption to some intelligence sharing and to its use of the Starshield military satellite system, though Zelenskyy said that the Oslo meeting had reached an agreement to resolve those issues.

Citing US officials and people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that billionaire Elon Musk had last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service that ​Ukraine relies on to track Russian ballistic missile strikes.

News agencies could not ​immediately verify the report.

Musk has said any such decision is taken by the US military or the president. Trump has said he was not responsible and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv's ability to access Starlink.