The United States, Russia and Ukraine signaled Monday that they could return to three-way talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war, after U.S. envoys traveled to Moscow and Kyiv for meetings with the countries’ leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not rule out resuming the trilateral format involving Washington, Moscow and Kyiv, though he said it was too soon to discuss a location or timing. At a Monday press conference, Peskov also said Russia did not yet have information on the results of U.S. contacts in Kyiv but did not rule out a possible telephone call between the presidents after the American negotiators’ visit.
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In a statement posted Monday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said the American delegation visited both capitals at President Donald Trump’s direction to facilitate additional dialogue. Witkoff said Russian and Ukrainian officials had agreed before the trip to a three-day no-shoot policy to allow the discussions to proceed.
Witkoff said he, Jared Kushner and officials from the National Security Council, State Department and Treasury Department met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss each side’s proposals. He said national security advisers from the United Kingdom, Germany and France joined the Kyiv discussions and that “substantive progress” had been made, including movement toward scheduling additional trilateral talks.
Zelenskyy said Monday that he met with Ukraine’s negotiating team after talks with Trump’s envoys in Kyiv. He said the sides held three rounds of negotiations and that representatives of France, the United Kingdom and Germany also joined. Zelenskyy said he had a separate one-on-one meeting with Witkoff and Kushner to review the day’s outcomes.
The Ukrainian leader said the talks included Ukraine’s air defense needs, technological cooperation and a winter support package. He said Ukraine was coordinating next steps and preparing additional meetings and communications, adding that Ukraine’s proposals were “constructive.”
The statements followed a weekend of diplomacy in which Witkoff and Kushner met Putin in Moscow before traveling to Kyiv for talks with Zelenskyy. The meetings produced no announced breakthrough, but the three statements pointed to continued efforts to revive direct negotiations among the parties.
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