Russia-Ukraine talks planned for November in UAE: Kremlin

What the report says

Moscow has confirmed that Russia, Ukraine and the United States are preparing for new trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates in November, according to Al Jazeera’s report citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The discussions are intended to address the war in Ukraine and would be the first planned negotiations since earlier US-brokered efforts stalled earlier this year.

Al Jazeera reported that the next round is planned for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi. The Kremlin said the talks would again be in a trilateral format after recent contacts, including a visit by US special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg this week. Ukraine had said after Witkoff’s meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that it wanted talks to begin as soon as possible.

The article said expectations for a major breakthrough remain low. Earlier negotiations produced little progress, and Russia has continued to press demands that Ukraine surrender territory and forswear NATO membership. Putin said in a televised interview that any trilateral discussion should focus on long-term security arrangements rather than a short ceasefire.

The report also placed the talks in a wider context of shifting US-Russia and US-Ukraine relations, including criticism from Washington of Kyiv’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and signs of easing tensions between President Donald Trump and Putin. Separately, Russia said it exchanged 270 prisoners of war with Ukraine on Friday, one of the few channels of contact that has remained open during the conflict.