Vladimir Putin told Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, on 21 October that Russia is "in principle" ready to resume talks with the US and Ukraine "around the 10th of November". That is the account of Putin's foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov in the Kremlin's readout1. The two met for nearly three hours at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg, Putin's ninth meeting with US representatives. Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and fellow envoy, joined by video.
The date falls after the end-of-October window Washington had wanted, set after the one-day Miami round with Kyiv's delegation. Ushakov blamed Ukrainian strikes on the main voting day of Russia's Duma elections for wrecking an earlier resumption. When Witkoff and Kushner last saw Putin in September, neither side announced a result; this time the Kremlin published a date.
Ushakov said "a significant part" of the conversation covered Russian diesel for the US and world markets, agreed in the 9 October Putin-Trump call. He said "practical work ... has already begun" since Washington lifted some diesel sanctions. Other "large joint economic projects" are "nearing the implementation stage", he added, naming none.
Ushakov said Putin had pardoned Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen held in Russia, who was handed to Witkoff at Pulkovo Airport. Putin thanked Melania Trump for mediation over occupied Oleshky and the return of Ukrainian children, five days after the Pope raised the town's civilians with him. In the same readout, Ushakov said Russian forces are destroying military-industrial, energy and logistics facilities in Ukraine "as a retaliatory measure", extending the campaign against Ukraine's interregional power lines.
