Zelenskyy Says Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia Will Hold Trilateral Peace Talks in November
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Ukraine, the United States and Russia will hold a trilateral meeting in November aimed at restarting stalled peace talks, Euronews and The Guardian reported.
"We are ready to talk. If it's a territorial issue, it must be addressed at a leadership level. Other issues fall within the remit of the technical groups. All this can therefore be discussed in November," Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukrainian television, according to Euronews.
What Zelenskyy Said About the Trilateral Talks
Zelenskyy said Ukraine will not discuss limits on its armed forces or enforced postwar neutrality at the meeting, The Guardian reported. He also renewed his push for a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Putin is the only person in Russia who can make major decisions to end the war.
Putin agreed "in principle" to restart talks after Nov. 10, Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters after Putin met U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, according to Euronews. Ushakov said the talks would focus on "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends."
Witkoff's Meetings in Oslo and St. Petersburg
Witkoff met with Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo on Tuesday before meeting Putin on Wednesday, Euronews reported. After those meetings, both Kyiv and Moscow said they were ready to resume direct talks mediated by Washington.
Representatives of the three countries held three rounds of negotiations earlier this year, twice in Abu Dhabi in January and February and once in Geneva in February, but little progress was reported beyond exchanges of prisoners of war, according to Euronews.
Zelenskyy also told Ukraine's TSN television channel that U.S. warnings about incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes had been fully restored, and that SpaceX's Starshield satellite service had been working normally since early Saturday, after his meeting with Witkoff, The Guardian reported.
Fighting Continues
Zelenskyy said Russia launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine over the past week, according to The Guardian. Russia's defense ministry said its drones struck two cargo vessels headed to the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk and Odesa.
A Ukrainian drone attack overnight on the Russian border city of Belgorod killed three people and injured 13, local authorities said Sunday, The Guardian reported.
Images: Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Council of Europe in June 2025 (file photo), Mickaël Schauli, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; Steve Witkoff at the White House (file photo), The White House, public domain.
Yossi Schmidt, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Free Press
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Sources: Euronews, "Zelenskyy: Trilateral talks with US and Russia set for November" (Oct. 25, 2026): https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/25/ukraines-zelenskyy-confirms-trilateral-talks-with-russia-and-us-to-take-place-in-november ; The Guardian, "Ukraine war briefing: Trilateral peace talks with Russia to restart, says Zelenskyy" (Oct. 26, 2026): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/26/ukraine-war-briefing-trilateral-us-ukraine-russia-talks-restart-november
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