Ukraine talks in St. Petersburg: “Momentum for ending the war”

Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is playing for time: He is ready to resume talks with Ukraine and the USA next month. This was stated by his foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov after Putin's meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff. The main focus should be on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict”. There is currently momentum for ending the war, said Witkoff.

At the same time, Moscow is also preparing a trilateral meeting between the USA, Russia and China. “There is an opinion from three sides that it would be good to meet,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the conversation in the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg. The Russian leadership is aiming for such a meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.

On Tuesday, Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European allies in Oslo. On Wednesday morning he came to the Neva for a three-hour conversation with Putin. In the evening he wanted to meet Zelensky again in Oslo.

"Putin is playing for time. He is betting on the victory of the right-wing extremists in France in the elections in April and then assumes an end to European support for Ukraine," a high-ranking European diplomat told taz on condition not to be quoted by name. “Putin doesn’t want peace at the moment, we have to massively push him to do so.”

Shortly before Witkoff's arrival in St. Petersburg, Trump repeatedly claimed that Zelensky "doesn't want peace." At the same time as the three-hour conversation between Putin and Witkoff, the Ukrainian president told the US broadcaster Fox: Ukraine is ready for a peace agreement that freezes the war along the current front line.

"I think this is a realistic way to end this war. We declare a ceasefire or stop the killing, as President Trump has called it," said the President of Ukraine. That is “the least we expect from Russia today.”

Above all, the throttling of the eccentric US billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet for the Ukrainian army and the withholding of US weapons for Ukraine that have already been paid for by EU states are building up severe pressure on Zelensky. “If there are no longer any US weapons, including interceptors for air defense systems like Patriot, then Ukraine has a real problem,” said Stefan Meister, Russia expert at the German Society for Foreign Policy, to taz.

The negotiations took place against the backdrop of hostilities on the front in eastern Ukraine: There, Ukraine has achieved significant successes largely unnoticed by the public. According to the US Institute for the Study of War, the Ukrainian army's “Operation Vivaldi”, the details of which are only now becoming public after its end, has, for the time being, thwarted the Russian war goal of conquering the entire Donbass.

Operation Vivaldi, begun in May, first pushed back Russian troops from the Lyman area and then cleared the entire area west of the Sherebets River of Russian troops. With advances of sometimes over 20 kilometers and precise strikes against Russian logistics in the hinterland. The liberation of up to 300 square kilometers and numerous largely destroyed villages is of little importance in terms of area. But pushing the Russians back behind the river and thus stopping one of their central offensive lines is of immense strategic importance.

The recaptures are a not insignificant part of possible ceasefire negotiations. For its part, Russia claims to be advancing, which is primarily intended to impress Trump. Ukraine is now trying to refute increasingly fictitious Russian claims about its strength and territorial control through more publicity. In the meantime, journalists were also able to see for themselves the successes of Operation Vivaldi on site. Since September, Ukraine has consistently regained more territory than it has lost to Russia.

At the same time, Russia is sending the first tanker with 40,000 tons of diesel to the USA on Thursday following an agreement with Trump. This was announced by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Nowak.

Shortly after Witkoff's landing, Russia released the 74-year-old US citizen Steven Hubbard. He had previously been sentenced to over six and a half years in prison for allegedly working as a mercenary for Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian domestic secret service FSB said it arrested a German citizen born in 1976. He is said to have been an “active member of the Ukrainian armed forces”.