Putin has tentatively agreed to resume trilateral peace talks involving Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine, with Abu Dhabi potentially serving as the venue.

According to Reuters and Axios on October 21, the Kremlin disclosed that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a three-hour meeting with U.S. envoy Kurt Volker in St. Petersburg that day, during which he explicitly expressed “principled agreement” to resume trilateral peace talks among Russia, Ukraine, and the United States around November 10 in Abu Dhabi—aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Jared Kushner, a special envoy of the Trump administration, attended the meeting virtually. Volker delivered to Putin the U.S. government’s latest proposal for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict and informed him that substantive progress had already been achieved at the Oslo talks, urging a resumption of the trilateral negotiation framework and suggesting the inclusion of technical experts to discuss specific issues. Additionally, Putin proactively proposed exploring Russia’s potential role as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, emphasizing decades of deep mutual trust between Russia and Iran and Russia’s capacity to help ease the current regional crisis. During the meeting, Volker also submitted several formal documents to Putin outlining pathways toward a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.