Russia is “ready in principle” to resume talks with the US and Ukraine on ending the conflict, Vladimir Putin’s top aide has said.
Yuri Ushakov was speaking after Putin met US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and its European allies have been pressing Moscow for an immediate resumption of the talks suspended in February, and Ushakov said a new round could be held next month, possibly in Abu Dhabi.
Russia has for months refused talks as it believes it is winning on the battlefield with Ukraine facing an acute shortage of interceptors against deadly Russian missile attacks.
Witkoff went to St Petersburg after meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as the leaders of Norway and Finland on Monday in Oslo. Ushakov said their ideas were not very “useful”.
Top officials from Russia, Ukraine and the US have held several rounds of talks aimed at ending the war that began in February 2022 when Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The talks, however, were put on hold, with the Kremlin blaming last month’s “massive” Ukrainian strikes on Russia during its general elections for their disruption.
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s talks in St Petersburg, Ushakov suggested that a new round could be held around 10 November in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
He stressed that the talks must focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict.”
A US official later told the BBC that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, another key negotiator, had proposed at Tuesday’s talks in the Norwegian capital “a trilateral meeting at the technical level between the US, Russia, and Ukraine”.
“This was accepted by the Ukrainians in Oslo yesterday and by the Russians in St Petersburg today,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ushakov also told reporters that President Putin reiterated to Witkoff that Russian troops were advancing everywhere across the vast front line and had a “strategic initiative”.
Ukraine and its European allies are disputing Putin’s claim, pointing to a virtual stalemate on the front.
The talks in Oslo and St Petersburg were held amid a growing row between Ukraine and the US.
Trump has said it is time for Ukraine to get a new president, and most recently “for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine”.
Ahead of next month’s US midterm elections, Trump has also sought to blame Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries for fuel prices which have been rising since the start of the US-led war on Iran.
European leaders have expressed concern about recent US statements towards Russia.
