(Reuters)
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct 21 – Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington’s latest push to stop Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.
The negotiations in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, the ninth time that Witkoff has met Putin in person, began with a goodwill gesture from Russia – the release of Stephen Hubbard, a retired US school teacher held in Russia whom US President Trump had asked the Kremlin chief to release.
Wednesday’s encounter unfolded amid concerns in Kyiv and among its allies that the United States is backing away from Ukraine, at times holding back real-time intelligence on Russian attacks and hobbling Ukraine’s military communications.
The latest talks also came more than two years since Trump promised in his successful election campaign to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
The Kremlin said the new 3-way peace talks, which would be at a technical level, could take place in Abu Dhabi and would be focused on how to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia once the war ended. They could begin sometime on or after November 10, it said. The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran.
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