Kremlin ready to resume Ukraine negotiations after November 4

Russian President’s aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow will be ready to resume negotiations after National Unity Day on November 4.

Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, said Kyiv is prepared to stop the war along the current line of contact, but rejected any deal under which Ukraine would lose a quarter of its territory.

Zelensky gave an interview to ABC News on Friday, October 23, in which he said he was ready to conclude a peace agreement “today.” According to Ukrainska Pravda, he noted that the war should be “frozen along the line of contact,” but stressed that Ukraine “will never recognize the occupied lands as Russian.”

The question of 25% of territory

When asked about a possible concession of 25% of territory, Zelensky disputed the figure itself.

“When someone talks about 25%, it means we ourselves must withdraw from all of Donbas, and then they will control 25%. Right now they control 19.3%,” he said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda and RBC-Ukraine.

According to the Kyiv Post, Zelensky stated that “Ukraine will not accept proposals to formalize the temporarily occupied territories as Russian,” calling it a hard line that cannot be crossed on the issue of legal sovereignty.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected ceasefire proposals. Instead, it demands that Kyiv hand over the parts of Donbas that Russian forces have not captured. Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Independent, has accepted several American ceasefire proposals.

Tensions with Washington

The interview took place against the backdrop of growing White House pressure on Zelensky to make concessions. President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Kyiv for the lack of progress in negotiations, ABC News reports.

Zelensky said that U.S. support “is not supporting.” According to him, over the past three months Ukraine received only 24 interceptor missiles for Patriot systems from the United States, while it needs an average of around 350 per month. On the night of Thursday, October 22, 30 ballistic missiles were fired at Kyiv. Zelensky also noted that the Starlink network “remains restricted.” Later, a source in his office told ABC News that speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield had been lifted.

November negotiations

Speaking at the Hudson Institute on October 23, Zelensky said that negotiating teams plan to meet “in the first half of November and as soon as possible,” with talks beginning at the technical level. According to RTÉ, he expressed hope that a leaders’ meeting would follow.

Ushakov described the first meeting as a “test run,” while a peace agreement, in his words, “still requires work,” the Kyiv Independent reports. The talks will take place following a three-hour meeting between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21. The day before, Witkoff met with Zelensky in Oslo. Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are preparing for a new round of negotiations in Abu Dhabi in November.