Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that a meeting of Ukraine, the United States and Russia is set to take place in November in an attempt to restart stalled peace talks.
In an interview with Ukrainian television, he said Ukraine is ready to talk. He said that if the issue is territorial it must be addressed at leadership level, while other issues fall to technical groups, and that all of this can be discussed in November.
Talk of negotiations with all three sides, aimed at stopping the drawn-out war, has circulated repeatedly in recent weeks. The latest announcements came amid intensified diplomatic efforts by US President Donald Trump's administration.
US envoy Steve Witkoff met Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo on Tuesday, then met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. After the meetings, both Kyiv and Moscow said they were ready to resume direct talks mediated by Washington.
Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters after the meeting in St. Petersburg that Putin had agreed in principle to restart the talks after 10 November. Ushakov said the talks would focus on building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.
In an audio message issued late on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he supported Washington's push to restart talks swiftly. He described the agenda as ending the war, bringing peace closer and preparing everything for a meeting at leaders' level.
Representatives of the three countries held three rounds of negotiations early this year, meeting twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February and holding further talks in Geneva in February. Little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war, as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their longstanding basic demands.