The Kremlin says Putin will rejoin peace talks after 10 November and China is readying a summit with Trump and Xi

Putin has agreed to resume three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the United States after 10 November, according to the Kremlin^3,4.

Russia said it was ready to return to talks to end the war after Putin met Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, in St Petersburg¹. The meeting was the one at which Russia freed the American teacher Stephen Hubbard⁶.

Ushakov, speaking for the Kremlin, said separately that preparations were under way for a possible trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping³.

The Kremlin said China is preparing for such a meeting². Putin and Xi are expected to hold a bilateral meeting at the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18 to 19 November². The proposed three-way meeting has been described as “the first such meeting in history”⁶.

How far apart the sides remain

Ukraine and Russia remain far apart on the terms of any possible peace deal⁵.

A meeting of Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump may not be imminent, but a meeting of Putin, Trump and Xi in China next month may well take place⁷. That would put Washington, Moscow and Beijing at one table on the war, with Ukraine’s president absent^4,7.

Witkoff’s visit also exposed divisions in Washington. Republican senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn criticised the envoy for calling Putin “a humanitarian”⁸. Vice President JD Vance defended him, calling Witkoff “a diplomat” who was in Russia to get a job done⁹.

What to watch

The Kremlin’s statements set out two separate tracks: three-way talks with Ukraine and the United States from some point after 10 November, and a possible leaders’ meeting with Xi in China^2,3.

Both rest on Russian accounts so far. The Kremlin has said China is preparing the summit, and the coverage reviewed carries no confirmation from Beijing or a date for a trilateral meeting beyond the APEC gathering on 18 to 19 November².

The first test is whether the talks resume on the Kremlin’s timetable after 10 November, and on what terms, given how far apart Kyiv and Moscow remain^3,5.

The second is the reaction in Washington. The criticism from Republican senators over Witkoff’s remarks shows that the envoy’s approach to Putin already faces scrutiny within the president’s own party^1,8.