Zelenskyy: Trilateral Peace Talks With US and Russia to Resume in November

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview on Sunday, 26 October, that a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, the United States and Russia will take place in November, aiming to revive stalled peace talks on ending the war. The move matters because negotiations are currently frozen while fighting continues with heavy strikes on both sides.

“We are ready to talk. If it’s a territorial issue, it must be addressed at a leadership level. Other issues fall within the remit of the technical groups. All this can therefore be discussed in November,” Zelenskyy said. He again called for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that Putin is the only person in Russia able to take major decisions to end the war. Zelenskyy also said Ukraine will not discuss limits on its armed forces or enforced neutrality after the war at the trilateral talks. Kyiv has long sought NATO membership, although some members of the alliance are reluctant.

Starshield and missile warnings

According to Zelenskyy, US warnings about imminent Russian ballistic missile strikes, which are critical for Ukraine's air defences, have been fully restored. He told Ukraine's TSN television channel that SpaceX's Starshield satellite internet has been working at speeds of up to 420 km/h since early Saturday, after a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo. Starshield had been throttled earlier in October amid diplomatic pressure from Washington on Kyiv.

The US has been trying to get Ukraine to suspend strikes on Russian oil refineries, saying they push energy prices higher. Zelenskyy has repeatedly said Kyiv will stop only if Moscow stops hitting Ukraine's power infrastructure, if the US lets Ukraine use Starshield over Russia to detect launch sites of ballistic missiles, or if it supplies Patriot missiles.

Attacks over the past week

Zelenskyy said Russia launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic ones, and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine this week, and he urged Western allies to speed up deliveries of interceptors.

Russia's defence ministry said its drones hit a cargo vessel bound for the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk overnight and another ship heading to Odesa during the day, claiming they were supplying the Ukrainian army. Russian forces also struck a logistics centre, a distribution centre and a logistics terminal in Kharkiv overnight. Reuters could not confirm the reports.

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod overnight killed three people and injured 13, local authorities said; a separate drone strike later in the day killed another person. Regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said 30 apartment buildings were damaged.

Bulgarian election

Bulgaria's presidential election on Sunday ended inconclusively, and the head of state will be chosen in a runoff. Andrey Gyurov, candidate of the pro-western reformist opposition, performed surprisingly strongly and will face incumbent leftist president Iliana Yotova. Yotova opposes military aid to Ukraine and favours dialogue with Russia, while Gyurov has often voiced firm support for Kyiv.