Putin agrees to resume peace talks with Ukraine and US

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month, according to the Kremlin. The talks will be a three-way negotiation between Russia, the US, and Ukraine, aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The Russian leader met US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks in a grand imperial palace in St Petersburg, which lasted about three hours. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed support for the proposal and is hopeful the talks will take place in early November.

The focus of the talks will be on 'building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends', according to Yuri Ushakov, Mr Putin's foreign affairs adviser. This comes after a meeting between Mr Witkoff and Mr Zelenskyy in Oslo, where proposals were discussed.

However, Mr Ushakov stated that the proposals from the Oslo meeting 'contained little of real value in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis'. Despite this, he later told Russian state TV that while Moscow was not 'fully satisfied' with the proposals, they were a step in the right direction.

The last US-mediated peace talks took place in February, before the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted that only a leaders' summit can break the impasse.