Moscow Sets 4 November Date for Talks — and Plays Down What They Will Achieve

Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian ruler, said on 25 October that Moscow is ready to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States after 4 November, Russia's National Unity Day. In the same remarks, carried by state-controlled Vesti TV and reported by RBC, he said he does not expect substantial results from the first meeting, describing it as "more of a preliminary, exploratory meeting."

That is a scheduling signal, not a breakthrough. Two days earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the next round is "planned for the first half of November in Abu Dhabi" in a trilateral format — a plan Moscow and Kyiv both confirmed. The venue and window are now on the record. The level of participation, the agenda, and whether the meeting convenes at all are not.

Ushakov also disclosed a second track. In an interview with Russian broadcaster VGTRK published the same day, he said Moscow, Beijing and Washington are "in principle ready" to hold a Putin-Xi-Trump trilateral summit and that preparations have begun. He said Russia and the United States have not yet agreed on a bilateral Putin-Trump meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit scheduled for 18-19 November in Shenzhen, China.

The two formats are not the same thing, and the distinction matters. One is a US-brokered process that includes Ukraine. The other is a great-power format that does not. Moscow is preparing both at once, which leaves open the question of which "trilateral" it is actually negotiating.

The backdrop is contested. After US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, the Kremlin said Ukrainian and European peace proposals lacked "substance," while US President Donald Trump said it was "the closest we've been" to ending the war. Those assessments point in opposite directions, and neither has been matched by a published text of what is on the table.

What is established: Moscow has named a date after its own holiday, its aide has pre-emptively discounted the first meeting, and a separate summit format is in preparation. What is unknown: whether the Abu Dhabi round convenes, at what level, and with what proposals. The gap between a date and a negotiation is where this story currently sits.