Russia is ready in principle to resume talks with the United States and Ukraine to end the conflict. Vladimir Putin met with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg, marking the ninth time the two men have met in person.
During the meeting, Putin proposed a summit with Trump in China. Yuri Ushakov suggested that a new round of negotiations could take place around 10 November in Abu Dhabi.
The Kremlin stated that any meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky would require painstaking preparation by aides in advance. Russian President Putin claimed that Russian troops are advancing across the vast front line and hold a strategic initiative.
The Kremlin also blamed last month's Ukrainian strikes on Russia during its general elections for disrupting ongoing talks. In a separate development, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a retired US school teacher who had been detained in April 2022 and sentenced to 6 years and 10 months.
Trump said he had raised the idea of freeing Hubbard with Putin, who told Witkoff that Hubbard was at the airport waiting to fly back to the United States with him. Witkoff met Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Norway and Finland on Monday in Oslo.
Marco Rubio said the meeting with Zelensky was positive and that Witkoff would share the results with Russia. Zelenskiy said the Oslo meeting reached an agreement to resolve issues regarding intelligence sharing and Starshield.
A US official stated that the Oslo talks covered key elements of a comprehensive peace framework, including security guarantees for Ukraine, a post-war economic plan and a broader European security architecture. The US official also noted that Witkoff and Jared Kushner proposed a trilateral meeting at the technical level between the US, Russia, and Ukraine.
The war began in February 2022 when Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin's central war aims include full Russian control of the Donetsk region and no Nato membership for Kyiv.
Trump said it is time for Ukraine to end the war or face a very bad thing. Earlier this month, Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia.
Trump said he was not responsible for the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service. Pete Hegseth signaled the problem lay with the terms of service Kyiv needed to comply with.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk had last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service. Rubio claimed that Washington had not pulled back Kyiv's ability to access Starlink.
