US special envoy Steve Witkoff discussed a resumption of peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and America followed by a possible summit between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping next month, according to Russian officials.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after Wednesday’s meeting in St Petersburg between Witkoff and Putin that establishing a “security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends” was the main issue Moscow was ready to negotiate on, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Witkoff’s trip, his ninth visit to Russia, is part of a US pivot towards Putin in Trump’s push to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine that has alarmed Kyiv and its European allies. Russia released a US citizen on Wednesday, with Trump noting that the US was “not asked to give anything in return”.
Witkoff and Putin discussed resuming talks with Ukraine in mid-November, and a possible leaders’ summit between China, Russia and the US at the Apec forum in Shenzhen next month, Ushakov said. Beijing, which is hosting Apec, had already begun preparations for a meeting, he added.
On Tuesday Witkoff met Volodymyr Zelenskyy· and other European leaders in Oslo, with the Ukrainian president signalling a willingness to resume talks with Russia and the US, potentially advancing to a leaders’ meeting if progress was made, according to an official familiar with the talks.
Ukraine and the US also advanced discussions on security guarantees, which are a Kyiv demand for the peace process to move forward. But the official said expectations remained measured given Russia’s limited willingness so far to engage seriously in negotiations.
A US official told the FT that Russia accepted a proposal put forward by Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to hold technical talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine agreed to the idea during the talks in Oslo, they added.
In their talks with Putin on Wednesday, Trump’s envoys updated the Russian president on the progress made in talks with Zelenskyy, the US official said. Witkoff and Kushner, who dialled into the talks virtually, also discussed a postwar economic and prosperity plan, European security arrangements and plans for the upcoming trilateral meeting.
The US official described the two days of talks as “positive and constructive” while noting that important work still remains.
Images of Witkoff at the meeting with Putin showed him with handwritten notes that included the comments “I feel momentum. Need to build on that” and “business deal”.
Zelenskyy said on Wednesday evening that Kyiv “received feedback” that Russia supported the US idea of holding trilateral talks at the level of technical teams.
He added the “main positive signal” was that “Ukraine fully supports the American proposals”.
US-brokered talks with Ukraine have been on hold since America’s war in Iran began in late February.
Moscow has since paid lip service to the US’s diplomatic efforts and rejected Trump’s push for an immediate ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, or a moratorium on striking each other’s energy infrastructure.
Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel this month while putting pressure on Ukraine to end its strikes on Russian oil refineries, aiming to tame global fuel prices ahead of US midterm elections next month.
The shift has driven Trump’s relationship with Zelenskyy to its lowest point since their infamous spat in the Oval Office last year.
Putin on Wednesday hailed the diesel deal with the US, which he said had driven global prices down 5 to 6 per cent.
He told Witkoff that Russia was preparing to dispatch several tankers, with the first carrying 40,000 tonnes of fuel. It would leave “in two or three days”, he added.
Russia is interested in resuming economic co-operation with the US, Putin said, citing the possibility of sending “large quantities of fertiliser supplies” to the American market.
Steve Witkoff meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg
Zelenskyy struck an upbeat note following the talks in Oslo on Tuesday, saying that US intelligence sharing to warn Ukraine of Russian missile launches had been restored.
However, he also said that restrictions remained on the Ukrainian military’s use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system for flying drones at Russian targets.
Washington has repeatedly denied throttling Starlink to prevent drones from flying faster than 160kph, but Zelenskyy insisted it was deliberate.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it released a jailed US citizen on humanitarian grounds. Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, had been detained for more than four years after being captured by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Hubbard “is on his way back home and will soon be with his family”.
Witkoff told Putin in comments about Hubbard’s release broadcast on state television: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”
Hubbard, who is in his seventies, was captured by Russian forces from Izyum in eastern Ukraine in April 2022, where he had lived for several years while the city was under occupation.
He was sentenced to almost seven years’ imprisonment, accused of fighting on behalf of Ukraine — charges that Hubbard’s lawyer denied. He was deemed wrongfully detained by the US government in 2025.
Separately, Russia’s FSB internal security agency said on Wednesday it had detained a German citizen who had served in Ukraine’s armed forces.
The announcement followed last week’s detentions of a Japanese journalist accused of espionage and a Swede whom the FSB also accused of serving in Ukraine’s military.
Additional reporting by Paola Tamma in Brussels