Kyiv sets November date for three-way peace talks

Ukraine, the United States, and Russia will hold a trilateral meeting in November to restart peace negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday. The talks aim to break a stalemate in diplomacy between the three nations.

Zelenskyy stated that leadership-level discussions are necessary to resolve territorial disputes. He added that technical groups will handle other issues during the November session. The Ukrainian president also renewed his request for a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy believes Putin is the only Russian official capable of making major decisions to end the war.

Kyiv has defined the scope of the upcoming talks. Ukraine will not agree to limits on the size of its armed forces. The country will also not accept enforced postwar neutrality. These positions remain consistent with Kyiv’s long-standing goal of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, despite hesitation from some member states.

US warnings about imminent Russian ballistic missile strikes have been fully restored, Zelenskyy said. He explained that SpaceX’s Starshield satellite internet has been operating at speeds of up to 420 km/h since early Saturday. This service resumed after a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo. Starshield had been throttled earlier in October amid diplomatic pressure from Washington.

Washington has pressured Kyiv to pause attacks on Russian oil refineries, citing higher energy prices. Zelenskyy said Ukraine will stop those strikes only if Moscow ceases hits on Ukrainian power infrastructure. Kyiv will also halt the attacks if the US allows Starshield use over Russia to detect missile launch sites or if the US supplies Patriot missiles.

Russia launched nearly 2,300 drones at Ukrainian cities in the past week, Zelenskyy reported. The Ukrainian leader wrote online that Russia also fired about 1,600 guided bombs and 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles. He urged Western allies to accelerate deliveries of interceptor missiles.

Russian forces struck a cargo vessel bound for the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk overnight, according to Russia’s defense ministry. The ministry said another vessel en route to Odesa was hit later in the day. Russian forces also damaged a logistics center, a distribution center, and a logistics terminal in Kharkiv. Reuters could not independently confirm these reports.

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod killed three people and injured 13 on Sunday. Regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said 30 apartment buildings were damaged in the overnight strike. A separate drone strike later that day killed one more person in the area.