The key facts

  • Putin told Witkoff that Russia is ready to resume trilateral talks in early-to-mid November
  • The topic of the talks is a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict
  • Peskov said Russia is grateful to the United States for its efforts in the settlement

Moscow is ready for talks in November

Russian President Vladimir Putin informed US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff that the Russian side is ready to resume trilateral talks in the Russia–US–Ukraine format as early as November. This was announced at a briefing by aide to the head of the Russian state Yuri Ushakov, as quoted by TASS, reports Gazeta.Ru.

The topic is the security system

“The President informed Steve Witkoff that we are, in principle, ready to resume the aforementioned trilateral talks in early-to-mid November on the main topic. This topic concerns building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict,” Ushakov said. He also noted that the situation on the Ukrainian settlement after Kyiv derailed the talks had been analyzed anew taking into account signals from the United States.

The Kremlin on US efforts and the role of the Nordic countries

Earlier the same day, press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is grateful to the United States for its sincere efforts in the Ukrainian settlement. According to him, Russia will see whether Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb can make a constructive contribution to the settlement in Ukraine. In addition, it was earlier reported that Witkoff had made a request to Putin regarding the Ukrainian conflict.

Context

Ushakov's statement records the first publicly announced date by Moscow for a possible resumption of the trilateral format after Kyiv derailed the talks — early-to-mid November. For observers, this is a signal that the settlement dialogue has not been definitively broken off, and its key subject has been named as the security architecture of the two countries after the end of the conflict. At the same time, sources do not disclose the content of the signals from the United States that were taken into account in the new analysis of the situation, and do not clarify whether Ukraine has responded to the initiative.