The Kremlin announces that Vladimir Putin is ready to resume talks with the United States and Ukraine in November, in Abu Dhabi

Russian President Vladimir Putin is, in principle, prepared to resume trilateral negotiations with the United States and Ukraine to end the war, the Kremlin announced on Wednesday, following a meeting in St. Petersburg with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. A new round of talks could take place in November in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Yuri Ushakov, one of the Russian leader’s main advisers, said that Moscow was prepared to participate in negotiations and claimed that the war in Ukraine “is nearing its end.” The statement was not accompanied, however, by an agreement on ending the fighting or by a concrete timetable for resuming dialogue.

Steve Witkoff confirmed that discussions would continue through trilateral negotiations at the technical level between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. The U.S. envoy had previously met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oslo, where he discussed the possibility of negotiations at the level of the leaders of the three countries.

The efforts come after several rounds of Russian-American talks on the conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Previous negotiations did not result in a ceasefire agreement, major progress on prisoner exchanges, or a truce for energy infrastructure.