Witkoff Meets Putin in St Petersburg as Ukraine Talks Are Set to Resume
US envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Reuters reported that Putin agreed afterward to resume three-way peace talks on the war in Ukraine, which would involve the United States, Ukraine and Russia.
The Kremlin published a readout of the meeting, which it said took place in the Constantine Palace. Al Jazeera reported that the talks lasted about three hours and that the meeting was the ninth time Witkoff had met Putin in person. Kremlin records also list earlier meetings between the two, including one in St Petersburg in April 2025.
Before the meeting, Axios reported on October 20 that Witkoff would present Putin with an updated Ukraine peace plan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the country's top diplomat, told reporters that there were reports Witkoff was presenting Putin with an updated U.S. proposal to end the war.
According to Reuters, Witkoff told Putin that the peace talks had shown "some degree of momentum." A US official said Ukraine had brought new ideas to the process. The talks took place as President Donald Trump pressed Kyiv to make a deal that would stop the fighting, WLBT reported.
CNBC reported that Witkoff called Putin a "humanitarian" during talks held without Ukraine. A Guardian column quoted Witkoff telling Putin that he was a humanitarian, and described Witkoff as the US senior envoy seeking to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The column also noted that Putin had been in power for 26 years.
Reuters also reported that Putin freed a US citizen who had been held in Russia around the time of the meeting. In September, Rubio had referred in an interview to a proposal for a trilateral meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin, according to a State Department transcript.
The fighting continues to reach civilians far from the front. According to a Guardian report, the city of Kharkiv, less than 20 miles from the Russian border, has built 10 underground schools because of regular Russian bombing. The same report said six people were killed in a drone strike in a park near Kharkiv, among them a one-year-old girl, Anhelina, and her mother, Inna Mariukhna, a schoolteacher.
