Russia just sat down with Ukraine at the White House
2 hours ago · 5 November 2026Share
The exterior of the White House West Wing in winter. File photo. Geraldshields11 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russia and Ukraine are sitting down at the White House today.
Melania Trump is hosting them. Both sides sent people. This has never happened there before.
So here's the setup. Melania Trump speaks at 11am ET about a ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine's Kherson region. That ceasefire started on 27 October. It held long enough to get aid in and get almost 800 people out to Ukrainian-held territory.
Ukraine sent two people. David Arakhamia, who runs President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's party in parliament. And Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman.
Russia was supposed to send Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy for President Vladimir Putin who also runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund. And Yana Lantratova, Russia's human rights commissioner.
But here's the thing. Even a day before the meeting, nobody could say for sure Russia was showing up.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's press secretary, said it came down to logistics. Some of the people travelling with Lantratova didn't have visas yet. And no source has confirmed the Russian delegation actually arrived.
The White House is calling this an extraordinary moment in American history. It still isn't clear if Donald Trump himself, or his envoys, are in the room too.
So why does this matter beyond today?
Because it's a warm-up. Russia has confirmed that Moscow, Kyiv and Washington will hold trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November. That's the first three-way talks of the whole war since February. Vladimir Medinsky, a long-time Putin aide, will lead Russia's team there. Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, says Washington wants the talks to focus on security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian issues.
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Aerial view of Lafayette Park and the Washington Mall in Washington, D.C. File photo. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain
Zelenskyy says he's already had a long call with Witkoff and another US envoy, Jared Kushner, to get ready for it.
Now here's where it gets messy. Ukraine has credited Melania Trump directly for Oleshky. Zelenskyy gave her Ukraine's Order of Princess Olga, First Class, for brokering it.
But the Vatican tells a different story. It says Pope Leo secured the ceasefire himself, through phone calls with Putin and Zelenskyy last month.
So two very different accounts of who actually made this happen, and neither has given way to the other.
And the ceasefire wasn't even clean while it lasted. Ukraine has accused Russian forces of using the pause to dig in and reinforce their positions inside Oleshky, not just let aid through.
Not everyone thinks today leads anywhere fast. Eugene Goncharov, policy director at the American Coalition for Ukraine, welcomed the Oleshky ceasefire but says he isn't expecting a bigger breakthrough to follow it. He says quote "We don't have high expectations".
Matthew Boyse, who is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, held a different job before that. He used to work as a US deputy assistant secretary of state. He says the gap between Moscow and Kyiv is still too wide to close quickly, and that nobody should expect this meeting to close it.
The Kremlin only confirmed it was coming after first saying it had no information about any planned gathering. That gap between the two Russian statements has not been explained.
So what don't we know? Whether Russia's delegation actually walked through the door. What was actually said inside the room. And whether Abu Dhabi next week moves any of this forward, or just repeats today.
Those answers will say a lot more about whether this war is slowing down than today's meeting alone ever could.
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