Updated

US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin for nearly three hours in St. Petersburg on October 21, after which Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia was ready to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States, possibly in mid-November, with Putin ordering the release of detained American Stephen Hubbard at the meeting's start. President Zelensky confirmed Kyiv had received feedback from Washington and supported resuming team-level trilateral talks, which Witkoff said would continue at a technical level; the Kremlin suggested Abu Dhabi as a possible venue, while the Kremlin also said it saw little useful in new proposals from Ukraine and the EU. Separately, the Kremlin said China is already preparing a possible US-Russia-China summit at the APEC meeting in Shenzhen, Putin met Chinese Premier Li Qiang after the Witkoff talks, and Trump said he wants a deal signed by the December G20 summit as reports emerged that Trump may increase pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement by year's end.