Kremlin ready to resume trilateral talks but sees little of use in new Ukrainian and EU proposals
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia is ready to resume talks with the US and Ukraine in mid-November. He added that the new proposals from the EU and Kyiv contained little that was useful for settling the crisis.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on October 21 that the Kremlin is prepared to restart trilateral talks between Russia, the United States and Ukraine in mid-November. He spoke after Russian President Vladimir Putin met American representative Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. The statement matters because it shows Moscow's position on a possible continuation of negotiations tied to the war in Ukraine.
What Ushakov said
According to Ushakov, Putin conveyed Russia's readiness to resume talks directly to Witkoff during the meeting. Russia is prepared to continue discussions on the main topic, which, in Ushakov's words, concerns building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.
European Union and Kyiv proposals
Witkoff, for his part, presented new approaches put forward by the European Union and Kyiv. Ushakov assessed them sceptically: in his view, there was not much in them that was useful for settling the Ukrainian crisis.
Ushakov's remarks suggest that Moscow does not formally object to restarting negotiations, but does not regard the new European and Ukrainian proposals as a useful basis for a settlement. The source gives no further details about what those proposals contained.
