Ukraine Warupdated 1h ago2 min read
Putin Says He Is Ready To Resume Trilateral Talks After Witkoff Meeting
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Putin ready to resume trilateral Ukraine-US talks after Witkoff meeting Ukraine backs trilateral talks and seeks early November meeting
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Putin rejects ceasefire
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin said, after a conversation with US envoy Steve Witkoff, that "we are ready to resume our trilateral contacts" while he again rejected a ceasefire. Putin told the Kremlin-backed correspondent of state television, Pawel Sarubin, that his position was that "this is not your territory, but territory of historic Russia."
Russia’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the next round of negotiations could be held around 10 November in Abu Dhabi and stressed that the talks must focus on "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict." Ukraine’s capital came under a new missile attack hours after Russia said it was "ready in principle" to resume peace talks, and Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said several houses were hit and six people were injured.
Ukraine backs talks
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on October 21 that Ukraine was ready to participate in proposed trilateral talks with the United States and Russia at the technical level, after Witkoff’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Zelenskyy said, "We support this," and added that Ukraine would prefer the meeting to take place as soon as possible, ideally by early November.
Zelenskyy also told reporters, "Russia has said many times that it was ready to meet, and then something changed or was canceled. We'll see how it goes this time," while Witkoff described his discussions with Putin as "constructive."
In parallel, the BBC reported that Zelensky said he would accept a deal that would freeze the war along the current front line, and Zelensky said, "Freeze and stop."
Europe seeks a channel
Czech President Petr Pavel said Vladimir Putin "disregards the European Union as an authority," and he argued the EU should "identify a person or a group of people who would speak for Europe." David Lidington said, "Much as it sticks in the craw, I do think a channel of some kind to Putin would be a good thing to have," while POLITICO.eu reported that European officials are debating who should negotiate directly with Putin.
The POLITICO.eu piece said Alexander Stubb was gaining attention, and a diplomat said, "Stubb is of interest because of Finnish knowledge of and traditional dialogue with Russia." The DW report said Moscow proposed a trilateral summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit scheduled for November 18-19 in Shenzhen, China, and it said Beijing would participate largely as a symbolic partner, not as an active mediator, according to Temur Umarov.