The key facts

  • Putin’s and Witkoff’s talks took place on October 21 at the Constantine Palace and lasted about three hours
  • Ushakov described the contact as thorough and candid
  • Witkoff spoke about Kyiv’s and the EU’s new approaches to a settlement, which, according to Ushakov, contained little of use

A three-hour meeting at the Constantine Palace

Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff took place on October 21 at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg and lasted about three hours. This was reported by aide to the Russian leader Yuri Ushakov, as RIA Novosti reports citing his remarks to journalists. “As always, today’s contact was thorough and candid,” Ushakov emphasized.

Topics of the conversation and assessment of the new approaches

The main topics of the meeting were the settlement of the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, as well as the development of bilateral relations between Russia and the United States. During the open part of the talks, Putin said that the country is interested in restoring economic cooperation with the United States, and also asked the American official how the consultations with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of European countries had gone in Oslo the day before. According to Ushakov, during the conversation Witkoff told Putin about Kyiv’s and the European Union’s new approaches to settling the Ukrainian conflict, but in the presidential aide’s assessment, there was not very much of use in them. Earlier, the Russian State Duma summed up the results of the meeting. More on the talks — in the Gazeta.Ru article.

Why this matters

The meeting is another venue for direct contact between Moscow and Washington on the Ukrainian conflict, and its outcomes shape the picture of how the sides assess the proposals of Kyiv and the European countries. In practical terms, this means that the position presented by Witkoff after the consultations in Oslo has already been conveyed to the Russian leadership, while the Kremlin’s official assessment — “not very much of use” — sets the framework for further talks. The details of the closed part of the conversation have not yet been disclosed, so no conclusions about specific agreements can be drawn from the published reports.