US-Led Peace Talks With Russia, Ukraine to Take Place in First Half of November: Kremlin

(L-R) This combination of pictures created on Aug. 18, 2025, shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Aug. 18, 2025, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The Kremlin announced that trilateral talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine will take place in Abu Dhabi during the first half of November.

The announcement on Oct. 23 came just two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to resume U.S.-led peace talks with Ukraine following discussions with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Oct. 21. After the meeting, the Kremlin said trilateral talks, which would address security guarantees for both Russia and Ukraine following the end of the war, could restart as early as Nov. 10.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked on Friday whether the Kremlin would rule out the possibility of the upcoming peace talks involving Europe in addition to the United States, Russia, and Ukraine, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.

“Nothing can be ruled out in advance,” Peskov responded. “But the talks we are discussing, which are scheduled for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, will be held in a trilateral format.”

The last round of trilateral peace talks took place in February in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Kremlin spokesman said the possibility of including a special envoy from the European Union in the peace talks would depend “on the position from which Europeans might take part in this process.” He said that while negotiations would begin with trilateral talks, it would be “impossible to discuss the European security architecture without other participants.”

Peskov reiterated the Kremlin’s previous announcement that the trilateral negotiations will be focused on the security of Russia and Ukraine following a peace deal. He described the security issue as one of the “most important elements of reaching a peace settlement,” adding that a “comprehensive solution” would not be possible without it.

“Indeed, the [Russian] president has outlined the key issue of the negotiations and it concerns security issues for the two countries—Russia and Ukraine—but only after a peaceful settlement has been achieved,” Peskov said, according to TASS.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on the trilateral peace talks but did not receive a response before publication time.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate a peace deal and end the war, which is ongoing after four and a half years. On Oct. 19, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia and Ukraine needed to focus on bringing an end to the war to avoid the risk of escalation.

“The president wants this war settled so the senseless killing ends. The president and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done,” a White House official told The Epoch Times on Oct. 23.

The White House official said the United States continues to speak to both Moscow and Kyiv to bring a resolution to the conflict. “We are the only country in the world that can play that role.”

On Oct. 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” that he would accept a ceasefire deal that froze the war along the current front lines between Russia and Ukraine.

“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is a real way to end this war,” he said. Zelenskyy added that stopping the fighting along the current battle lines was the “minimum” Ukraine needed from Russia.

Zelenskyy said he would ask Trump and Ukraine’s European allies for security guarantees if a ceasefire deal is reached between Moscow and Kyiv.

The White House announced on Friday that First Lady Melania Trump brokered a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the city of Oleshky in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Under the localized ceasefire, which is scheduled to start on Oct. 29, Ukraine and Russia are to halt all military action in Oleshky to allow humanitarian aid to enter the city and facilitate the evacuation of civilians.