Russian Invasion The Negotiations

Russia ready for new talks in Abu Dhabi in November

Vladimir Putin’s advisor, Yuri Ushakov, states that Russia is prepared to hold new trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine, and views Abu Dhabi as a suitable location for them. This is reported by Reuters.

“We are prepared to resume the previously mentioned trilateral talks around November 10, focusing on the core issue,” says Ushakov, according to Tass, adding:

“That issue concerns the establishment of a security system for Russia and Ukraine following the end of the conflict.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, held a meeting with Putin in Saint Petersburg.

“Witkoff briefed Putin on the talks in Oslo and ‘new approaches,’ but nothing that was of any real use for a peace agreement,” the Kremlin wrote in a statement, as reported by the Norwegian newspaper *Dagbladet*.

Witkoff returned to Oslo on Wednesday afternoon, where he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Trump’s negotiator hailed Putin as a “philanthropist”

Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, adopted a flattering tone during his hours-long meeting with Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday. Among other things, he described the Russian president as a “philanthropist” following his decision to pardon an imprisoned American.

“I commend you and I thank you,” Witkoff says to Putin in a clip circulated by Russian state media, according to *Politico*. Fredrik Wadström, Russia correspondent for Sveriges Radio, finds the timing peculiar.

“Reporting on the war in Ukraine over the last few days has been heavily focused on the Russian attack on a playground in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, in which several children were killed,” says Wadström.

Expert: Trump is driven by money and Russian business dealings

US President Donald Trump’s involvement in peace negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine is primarily motivated by his desire to improve relations with Russia, Ukraine expert Fredrik Wesslau tells the news agency TT.

“He wants to be able to do business and make money there; that is what drives his entire approach to peace negotiations.”

Recently, Trump has adopted a sharper tone toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while simultaneously signing diesel deals with Russia and easing sanctions.

The price of diesel, in particular, has become a hot-button political issue ahead of the US midterm elections—and, consequently, a liability for Trump, Wesslau argues.