Russia just agreed to talk again but hasn't dropped a single demand
1 hour ago · 21 October 2026Share
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff meets with members of hostages families forum in Tel Aviv on May 13th 2025. File photo. U.S. Embassy Jerusalem · CC BY 2.0
Russia just agreed to talk again.
Vladimir Putin told the United States he's ready, in principle, to sit down for three-way peace talks with Ukraine and Washington around November 10.
That's the first time he's agreed to a date for that format since talks broke down.
He said it a few hours ago at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg. He was meeting Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, for three hours. It was the ninth time the two men have met face to face since this started.
Yuri Ushakov is Vladimir Putin's senior foreign policy aide. He briefed reporters right after the meeting ended.
He said the two men talked through a possible framework for restarting three-way talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine. The goal, he said, is a security system for both countries once the war is over.
So when exactly? Russian wire reports say the second ten-day period of November. That means somewhere between November 11 and 20. Other reports say November 10. Close, but not the same date. Nothing is fixed yet.
So that's the headline move. But here's the catch.
In the same briefing, Yuri Ushakov poured cold water on everything else.
He said the proposals Steve Witkoff brought — from Ukraine and from European governments — had little of actual value for ending the war. Russia's demands have not moved. Moscow still wants Ukraine to hand over the whole of Donbas. Cut its military down. And promise never to join NATO.
So Vladimir Putin has agreed to talk. He has not agreed to give anything up.
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Tsentralny District, St Petersburg, Russia. File photo. Андрей Бобровский · CC BY 3.0
This meeting came a day after Steve Witkoff sat down with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, called those talks positive. Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway's Prime Minister, said Russia also seemed to be looking for openings for diplomacy.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already said what he wants. He told Fox News he wants himself, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in the room together. He says quote "don't talk about us without us". That's him rejecting any format that puts Russia, China and the US at the table without Ukraine in it. He's also said any deal to end the war needs Ukraine's Parliament to approve it.
And that's already in tension with what came out of St Petersburg. Vladimir Putin floated a separate meeting with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, China's leader, next month. He also offered to help the US on Iran, and to send Russian fertiliser to American farmers.
One real result did come out of this meeting. Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher, has been released by Russia after more than four years in detention.
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, joined by video link. He had the flu and couldn't travel.
This didn't come from nowhere. Donald Trump announced a deal on October 10 for Russia to release millions of tonnes of diesel fuel. Steve Witkoff thanked Vladimir Putin in the meeting for lifting that export ban. And just a day before this meeting, Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, had struck a much cooler note — saying Moscow would make no political concessions and wasn't expecting a miracle.
So here's the gap. Vladimir Putin wants an economic and diplomatic reset — with China, and with American farmers. He hasn't said he'll drop a single one of Russia's demands on Ukraine.
What we still don't know: whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself will be at the table in November. Whether the US has a new security guarantees plan to bring to Ukraine. And what Moscow's actual answer is to Ukraine's own ceasefire and security proposal.
No Ukrainian or American government statement has confirmed the Kremlin's account independently.
So right now, all that's confirmed is a Kremlin readout, a date that isn't quite fixed, and a list of demands that hasn't moved at all.
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