After a three-hour meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin agreed to resume trilateral negotiations with Ukraine and the US, according to the Kremlin. However, as German tagesschau reports, this does not mean the end of the war, and on the night following the statement, Russian missiles struck Kyiv again.
What Moscow is Proposing
Putin's advisor Yuri Ushakov stated that negotiations could begin after November 10, likely in Abu Dhabi. Their topic should be "building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends." Ushakov and Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev were also present at the meeting with Witkoff, while Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner joined via video link, according to Witkoff.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has once again rejected peace initiatives: according to Ushakov, the proposals from Europeans and Ukraine, conveyed by Witkoff, "lack substantial content." The US, Russian, and Ukrainian delegations last met in this format in February in Geneva, and before that twice in Abu Dhabi, without any tangible results.
Kyiv's Position: Freeze the Front Line
Before his trip to meet Putin, Witkoff met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oslo on Tuesday. The Ukrainian president supported the idea of new negotiations and proposed holding a meeting between negotiators as soon as possible, preferably before early November. There, peace proposals and a potential leaders' summit could be discussed.
In an interview with Fox News, Zelenskyy called freezing the front line a possible first step toward a ceasefire: "We have to freeze it now." This, he said, is the path to ending the war and "the minimum we expect from Russia today." Russia, however, continues to demand control over the entire Donbas, including territories it has not yet captured, which Ukraine fundamentally rejects.
Missile Response
ARD correspondent Vasily Golod reminded that Zelenskyy's proposal is not new, and Moscow's reaction remains unchanged: "The signs still point to war." Late in the evening of October 21, Kyiv was attacked by ballistic missiles, a second wave came during the night, and explosions were heard again around 2 a.m. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, debris damaged residential buildings and gas stations on the left bank of the Dnipro, with at least 15 people injured. Part of the South Bridge, used by the metro, was also damaged. Zelenskyy again stated that foreign allies did not warn him of the missile attack.
German Experts Skeptical
Political scientist Nico Lange warned against excessive expectations in an interview with WDR: such headlines do not imply that Putin is ready for compromises or a ceasefire. "Putin, like throughout the past year, is betting that Trump will allow him to subjugate Ukraine by pressuring Kyiv," the expert believes. In his view, there will be no results this time either.
Washington's pressure on Ukraine is indeed increasing: Trump has suspended already adopted sanctions against Russia, announced a "diesel deal" with Moscow ahead of the congressional elections, and again urged Zelenskyy to reach an agreement with Putin, otherwise everything will "end very badly." Meanwhile, Kyiv is complaining about restrictions on US intelligence sharing and the slowdown of Starlink and Starshield, which are critically important for frontline communications and drone operations.
Based on materials from tagesschau (21–22.10.2026).