Kremlin Aide Ushakov: Putin Has Never Refused Talks, Early Rounds Should Be US-Russia-Ukraine Format
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on November 1, in remarks carried by Russia's Interfax news agency, that Russian President Vladimir Putin has never refused negotiations over Ukraine, and that if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called, Putin would take the call. Reuters reported the Interfax remarks the same day.
Ushakov said Moscow maintains working contacts with the Americans. He said it would be "logical" for at least the initial rounds of negotiations to be held in a trilateral United States-Russia-Ukraine format — a formulation that leaves European countries out of the room in the early rounds.
Ushakov is one of the Kremlin's principal aides on foreign policy, and his remarks are Moscow's latest public statement on the format of talks. A US-Russia-Ukraine trilateral format for ceasefire and peace negotiations has been raised by several parties before; Moscow has now stated explicitly that the opening rounds should be trilateral.
The remarks came as the war in Ukraine continues and public positions on the conditions and participants for negotiations remain in flux.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：莫斯科克里姆林宫。摄影 Ivan Smelov，CC BY，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Moscow Kremlin. Photo by Ivan Smelov, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-01Kremlin Aide Ushakov: Putin Has Never Refused Talks, Early Rounds Should Be US-Russia-Ukraine FormatThis story
