Putin tells Witkoff Russia is ready to resume three-way Ukraine peace talks, Zelenskiy willing to "freeze and stop."
At a meeting in St Petersburg on October 21, Vladimir Putin told US envoy Steve Witkoff that Russia was in principle prepared to resume trilateral talks with the US and Ukraine around November 10, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said. Ushakov said the main topic would be building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict. In a Fox News interview the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was ready to freeze the war on the current front line if it received suitable security guarantees, and that any deal would need approval by Ukraine's parliament.
Why it matters: The exchange matters for European security because the stated agenda is a post-conflict security system for Russia and Ukraine, with Kyiv seeking guarantees modelled on Nato's Article 5.