Russia and Ukraine say talks planned for November in UAE
The US-brokered talks are the first planned since negotiations stopped earlier this year.
Moscow and Kyiv have confirmed that trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States have been scheduled for November.
The planned negotiations, aimed at ending Russia’s war on its neighbour, will be held in the United Arab Emirates, the Kremlin’s spokesperson said on Friday.
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US-brokered talks were held earlier this year, but made little progress. The meetings then lapsed as the Trump administration was focused on its war on Iran.
However, Russia signalled its willingness to reengage after US special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to meet with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg this week.
The next round of talks is now “planned for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi” and “will take place in a trilateral format,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Hudson Institute think tank on Friday that he spoke with Witkoff after the envoy’s meeting with Putin, and that technical negotiations will take place “in the first half of November, and as early as possible”.
But much would depend on Russia, he warned, noting that a similar meeting expected earlier this month never materialised.
Hopes of making significant progress are slim. Previous talks have struggled to produce results, with Russia maintaining a list of hardline demands, including that Ukraine hands over large parts of its territory and agrees not to join NATO.
In a televised interview aired late on Thursday, Putin said that any trilateral talks should focus on the long-term security arrangements for a final peace deal, not a “short” truce.
Zelenskyy, for his part, said that any peace agreement would need strong security guarantees for Ukraine and funding for 10 years to maintain the Ukrainian army. He also called for Europe to be involved in the talks.
Shifting ties
Confirmation of the November talks comes amid growing strain on relations between Kyiv and members of the US government, and signs of improving ties between US President Donald Trump and Putin.
Trump, whose war on Iran has provoked rising energy prices that have dented his political support in the run-up to midterm elections, has criticised Ukraine’s targeting of Russian energy infrastructure and given Russia several key concessions in his administration’s latest diplomacy push.
The White House said on Friday that First Lady Melania Trump brokered a “localised ceasefire” between Moscow and Kyiv in the southern Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which has been occupied by Russia since February 2022.
Meanwhile, Trump has eased sanctions on Moscow and made a deal to buy 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel. Moscow announced on Friday that the first shipment was on its way to New York.
European leaders have said that the deal made peace between Ukraine and Russia harder to achieve by giving Russia “hope”.
Ukrainian forces have since reported problems regarding access to satellite technology from Starlink and crucial intelligence, despite US assurances that speed restrictions had been removed.
Ukraine is also waiting for shipments of air defence interceptors that had been previously promised, Zelenskyy said, making Ukrainian defensive efforts against near-daily Russian drone and missile attacks more difficult.
Such attacks have killed more than 19,000 Ukrainian civilians – including 762 children – since Russia launched its full-scale war more than four years ago, Ukraine’s acting prosecutor general, Anton Kovalsky, said Friday.
So far this year, prosecutors have confirmed the deaths of 2,960 civilians, including 668 children, Kovalskyi added.
Separately on Friday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence announced that Moscow and Kyiv had each exchanged 270 prisoners of war.
The ministry was quoted by state media as saying that the freed Russian servicemen were in Belarus and would be transported to Russia once they had received psychological and medical assistance.
Prisoner swaps are rare ground on which Russia and Ukraine have maintained contact throughout the conflict, with thousands exchanged since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.