Updated Oct 17

Peace Negotiations

Russia has added to its terms. On October 16 Putin said Russian forces were building a ‘security zone’ inside Ukraine along the border, and that Moscow did not plan to make it ‘a subject for potential peace negotiations’. The Kremlin puts the zone at 660 km of border. It lies in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, outside the four regions Russia already claims.

The same day Trump waived the sanctions and tariffs Congress passed in September, two days before they were due to take effect. Zelenskyy said the law ‘was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end’.

On October 17 Zelenskyy said Washington had proposed a meeting of the three presidents — in the Gulf, at the G20 in Miami in December, or in Europe — and that neither Washington nor Moscow had confirmed it. Ukraine’s negotiator spoke to Kushner on October 16 to set up a meeting, which the Americans have signalled for next week. The New York Times reports, citing unnamed sources, that the envoys have also proposed reopening Russian gas transit through Ukraine as part of a settlement.

New Oct 17

The whole story4 chapters

The state of it — as of October 17, 2026

Feb 18

the last round with Russian, Ukrainian and US delegations, in Geneva

Oct 31

Washington’s target for a three-way technical meeting; Kyiv agreed, Moscow has not

Today

All new

Oct 17, 2026

Washington Floats a Meeting of Three Presidents; Neither It Nor Moscow Has Confirmed One

Zelenskyy said on October 17 that the United States had proposed a meeting of the Ukrainian, American and Russian presidents: in the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, in Miami during December’s G20 summit, or in a European country. ‘Neither the Russian side nor the American side has confirmed it yet.’ Trump said he did not know whether Putin would come to Miami but would ‘love to have him’; in September the Kremlin said Putin would receive Zelenskyy only in Moscow. Zelenskyy said Umerov had spoken to Kushner on October 16 to arrange a meeting, and that the Americans had signalled one for next week. He asked Washington to press ‘Putin, rather than us’.

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Kyiv PostKyiv PostUkrainska PravdaUkrinformNV (Novoye Vremya)The Independent

Oct 17, 2026

Washington Is Reported to Want Russian Gas Flowing Through Ukraine Again as Part of a Deal

The New York Times reported on October 17, citing people familiar with the negotiations, that Witkoff and Kushner have proposed that Ukraine restore the transit of Russian gas to Europe as part of a settlement, and raised it with Ukrainian and European officials, including with Zelenskyy in Kyiv in September. European officials reacted negatively, the paper said. No government has confirmed the proposal, and the account rests on unnamed sources, relayed here by Ukraine’s UNN agency. Ukraine stopped the transit in January 2025, giving up about $1bn a year in fees; Russia’s share of EU gas imports fell from 45% in 2021 to 13% in 2025.

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UNN

Oct 16, 2026

Putin Adds a Border ‘Security Zone’ to Russia’s Terms, and Rules It Out of Talks

Visiting a command post on October 16, Putin said Russian forces had been tasked with ‘establishing a security zone in the adjacent territory’ along the border, adding: ‘we do not plan to make this a subject for potential peace negotiations with Ukraine.’ Peskov put the zone at 660 km of border and said Russia already controls 70% of it, a Kremlin figure not independently checked; he did not say how deep it would run. The zone lies in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, outside the four regions Moscow has claimed since 2022, so it adds to Russia’s demands rather than restating them. Putin had spoken of a buffer zone before, but had never sized it or put it beyond negotiation.

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The GuardianIntelliNews (bne IntelliNews)The Hindu

Earlier this month

Oct 14, 2026

Ukraine Ends Its Three-Day Pause, and the Energy Truce Is Over

Ukraine held off striking Russian energy for three days after Trump’s announcement; Russia did not. On the evening of October 13 it fired 39 missiles and 128 drones at Ukraine’s energy system, cutting power to at least 600,000 people and killing at least three in Kyiv, by the Ukrainian air force’s count. Peskov said the truce ‘was not specified, so it cannot be said that Russia is not complying with it’. On October 14 Zelenskyy told the Financial Times the pause, held at Washington’s request, was over: ‘The block is out. We’re done.’ On October 15 Russian regional officials reported a Ukrainian strike on a refinery in Ryazan, the first since the announcement. Zelenskyy said Russia had escalated ‘after receiving sanctions relief and seeing attempts to pressure Ukraine’.

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Kyiv PostCNNThe GuardianCNBC

Oct 13, 2026

Kyiv Asks for New Meetings; Moscow Talks of Seeing the Americans, Not a Three-Way Round

Zelenskyy said on October 13 that his team had sent Witkoff and Kushner proposals to meet ‘in the coming days’. Russian state media had reported on October 11 that the two envoys might visit Russia within about two weeks; no dates were set. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on October 13 that Russian–American consultations might take place by the end of the year, and that there was no specific agreement on a meeting with Ukraine.

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Ukrainska PravdaKyiv PostUNNCNN

Oct 12, 2026

Kyiv Offers Elections for Sixty Days of Ceasefire; Moscow Offers Election Day

Answering Trump’s call of October 10 for a new Ukrainian president, Zelenskyy said on October 11 that Ukraine would organise elections if Russia agreed a total ceasefire of 60 days: ‘Give us two months.’ Martial law bars wartime voting. Moscow’s reply on October 12 was a single day: Putin would halt strikes on election day itself if Kyiv genuinely meant to vote. ‘We don’t want a ceasefire, we want a lasting peace,’ Peskov said. Lavrov said Zelenskyy had not ‘earned such a respite’, and that Russia would not ‘once again fall for assurances and promises’.

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Associated PressPolitico EuropeBBC NewsBBC NewsLe MondeAl Jazeera EnglishCNN

Oct 12, 2026

A Four-Part Settlement Is Floated in Washington, and Kyiv Calls It PR

A Washington Post column on October 12, citing one unnamed US official, described a package under discussion: reconstruction finance through the World Bank and BlackRock; American and European security guarantees the official likened to NATO’s Article 5; an energy arrangement, possibly a pipeline carrying Russian oil and gas to Europe with revenue shared with Ukraine, and a timetable for lifting sanctions; and a ceasefire on the current ‘line of control’. No government has published or endorsed it. Zelenskyy’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said it was ‘the vision of some members of the US team’ — ‘good PR by the Americans’.

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Ukrainska PravdaKyiv Post

Oct 11, 2026

Trump Declares an Energy Ceasefire Neither Capital Says It Agreed

Trump announced on October 11 that an ‘energy ceasefire’ between Russia and Ukraine was in force and that both sides had agreed. No terms were published. Zelenskyy said it was news to him: Ukraine would accept it if Russia did, and was waiting for American details. An hour earlier he had offered on television to stop striking Russian diesel facilities if Russia stopped striking Ukraine’s grid. The Kremlin would not confirm anything: ‘Contacts are continuing,’ Peskov said. Hours after the announcement, by Kyiv’s account, Russia struck a thermal power plant in Kharkiv and a power plant in Kyiv.

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CNNThe GuardianBBC NewsPolitico EuropeAssociated PressBBC News

Oct 11, 2026

Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!

— Donald Trump False

Checked: false

False on agreement. Neither government confirmed it: Zelenskyy called it news to him and the Kremlin said only that contacts continued. Trump said next day they agreed ‘because I said, “You agreed”’; Peskov on October 14 said the truce ‘was not specified’ (CNN, Kyiv Post).

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CNNThe GuardianBBC NewsKyiv PostBBC News

Oct 9, 2026

Ukraine’s Negotiators Meet the Americans in Miami While Trump Calls Putin

Witkoff and Kushner met Ukraine’s negotiators in Miami on October 9, joined by Britain, France and Germany, the European Commission and NATO. Russia was not present. Witkoff said the group ‘held constructive discussions on potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter’, covering energy, grain exports, security guarantees and reconstruction; he announced no agreement. The talks had been planned for two days and ended after one: the Ukrainian delegation went home early, by the Kyiv Independent’s account, and a Radio Free Europe correspondent reported there was no second day. Trump’s call with Putin and the diesel announcement came while the session was under way. ‘I believe our team is simply being used as a smokescreen,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘It is certainly not how partners should treat each other.’

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Al Jazeera EnglishUkrainska PravdaPBS NewsHourThe HillNBC NewsAxiosLiga.netThe Guardian

Oct 9, 2026

By launching a massive drone attack on Moscow, other cities and polling stations, as well as on specific individuals involved in organizing the election, on the main voting day, the Kyiv regime effectively disrupted the possibility of an immediate resumption of the negotiation process. … And now, as the president said, we will consider when those negotiations can be resumed.

— Yuri Ushakov

Not yet checked

The Kremlin’s account of what Putin told Trump on October 9: that Moscow had been ready to resume talks after September’s elections. The Kremlin had also said on September 23, three days after the attack, that conditions for talks were not ready. Al Jazeera carries a slightly different translation.

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Al Jazeera EnglishAxios

Oct 9, 2026

Washington Is Reported to Have Leaned on Kyiv Over Refinery Strikes

At the Miami talks, according to a Washington Post column citing a US official, Witkoff and Kushner asked Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries and briefed its delegation on the diesel deal. They reportedly warned that intelligence sharing could be cut if the strikes went on, and the Financial Times reported a threat to suspend the channel through which Europeans buy American weapons for Ukraine. The US ambassador to NATO denied any change, and Trump denied intelligence sharing had stopped. Ukraine then went several days without American early warning of ballistic missiles; who ordered that is disputed.

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Ukrainska PravdaKyiv PostKyiv PostThe GuardianThe GuardianCNBC

Oct 8, 2026

It’s an extremely dangerous war because, frankly, right now it seems to be at a stalemate. And stalemates are very dangerous. … We have tried, we will continue to try, but we’re also not going to invest in pointless processes if we can’t make progress.

— Marco Rubio

Not yet checked

An assessment, not a checkable claim. Said in Lisbon on October 8. Peskov replied, ‘Yes, we agree with him.’ Zelenskyy did not: ‘We are not at a diplomatic stalemate.’ The next day American envoys met Ukraine’s negotiators in Miami (State Department transcript; Reuters; Ukrainska Pravda).

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SBS NewsUkrainska PravdaNBC News

Oct 8, 2026

Moscow Is Reported to Want Sanctions Relief for an Energy Truce, and Calls the Truce Kyiv’s Weak Spot

Russia has asked for American sanctions relief as its price for a mutual halt to strikes on energy infrastructure, and wants it tied to a Black Sea ceasefire, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing unnamed US and Ukrainian officials. Which sanctions is unclear, and Moscow has not confirmed it. In public Peskov dismissed the idea on October 8: ‘Kyiv is not currently proposing a long-term settlement, but rather a ceasefire in an area that is its Achilles’ heel — the energy sector.’ Russia, he said, is ‘not for a fragmented solution’. That day a Russian attack cut power across Kyiv.

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The Kyiv IndependentSBS News

Oct 4, 2026

Washington Proposes a Three-Way Technical Meeting by the End of October; Kyiv Says Yes

Zelenskyy said in Kyiv on October 4 that the United States was ‘in contact with Ukraine and Russia’ and proposing a meeting ‘at the technical level in a trilateral format by the end of October’. He had confirmed Ukraine’s support the day before. ‘We are open to the United Arab Emirates or another country proposed by the American side,’ he said; he did not know whether Moscow had yet been asked. ‘We will wait for their response.’ The proposal is known only from Zelenskyy’s account. Five days later the Kremlin said Putin had told Trump an immediate return to talks was not possible.

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European PravdaUkrainska PravdaThe Kyiv IndependentThe Moscow Times

Oct 3, 2026

An Oil Deal Linked to the Envoys’ Business Partners Is Reported Inside the Talks

The New York Times reported on October 3, citing several people with knowledge of the negotiations, that American–Russian discussions on ending the war now include a multibillion-dollar oil deal involving Lukoil, which Putin raised when he met Witkoff and Kushner on September 5. Its backers are said to include two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with both envoys. A senior administration official told the paper the envoys were helping negotiate terms bringing ‘a substantial upfront payment and profits for the United States’. This follows The Hill’s summary of the Times report, which adds that it is not apparent whether either envoy would profit. On October 10 the Times reported that US officials had also offered Moscow the release of frozen Russian sovereign assets (Guardian summary).

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The HillThe Guardian

Sep 29, 2026

A Second American Channel Offers Moscow Sanctions Relief for Prisoners

The Atlantic reported on September 29 that Trump had approved an initiative by his envoy John Coale under which Russia would free political prisoners and the United States would ease sanctions in return. It is modelled on Coale’s dealings with Belarus and was described as in its early stages; Trump’s approval rests on Coale’s own account. The White House nominated Coale as special envoy for hostage affairs on September 28. ‘The more interaction, the more trade-offs — either economic, prisoners, or whatever — leads step by step toward, hopefully, peace,’ Coale said.

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The Atlantic

Sep 23, 2026

The Kremlin Says Conditions for Talks Do Not Exist; Trump Invites Putin to Miami

On September 21 Peskov said there had been ‘no developments in the negotiation process so far’. Two days later the Kremlin said conditions were not ready for resuming talks with Ukraine and that it saw no prospect of high-level meetings. The same day, September 23, Rubio met Lavrov and said afterwards that Trump had invited Putin to the G20 summit in Miami in December. By September 29 Putin had not accepted. No round with Russian, Ukrainian and American delegations has convened since Geneva on February 17–18.

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Kyiv PostAxiosThe Atlantic

Sep 22, 2026

Trump and Zelenskyy Meet at the UN, and the Agenda Shrinks to Energy and Grain

Trump and Zelenskyy met for 40 minutes at UN headquarters in New York on September 22, their first meeting since July. Zelenskyy said afterwards that Washington was pressing three immediate steps: a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure, a reopened Black Sea grain corridor, and a meeting of all three governments, with Abu Dhabi floated as the venue. Later that day Witkoff and Kushner met Ukraine’s negotiators and the British, French and German national security advisers. Before the meeting Trump had said: ‘I think we’re gonna make a deal, and I don’t want to say what the deal is.’

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Al Jazeera EnglishThe Kyiv IndependentAxios

Sep 22, 2026

We are ready for energy ceasefire. If they don’t want us to attack their diesel and refineries, and etc, we are ready – if they will not attack our energy system, our electricity, heating system, water supplies.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Not yet checked

A stated term, not a checkable fact. Eight days earlier Zelenskyy had tied any de-escalation to Washington first securing Russia’s ‘genuine readiness to end the war’; this version asks only that Russia do the same. Said to reporters at UN headquarters after meeting Trump (Al Jazeera).

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The Kyiv Independent

Sep 18, 2026

Representatives of the Kyiv regime, the leadership in Kyiv, talk about peace and propose to resume so-called negotiations, but they themselves commit such crimes and do everything to ensure that there is no peace and no negotiations.

— Vladimir Putin

Not yet checked

Said at a session of Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission on September 18, 2026, and reported by Interfax. The English wording is Ukrainska Pravda’s translation of that report. It is an assertion about Kyiv’s intent, made in the week both governments said an October round was being prepared.

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InterfaxUkrainska Pravda

This quarter

Sep 14, 2026

Trump Says Both Sides Agreed to Spare Energy. Neither Capital Says So.

A day after telling reporters that Ukraine must stop hitting Russian diesel, Trump wrote that ‘Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!’ As of the following day neither government had said any such thing. Zelenskyy’s own statement was conditional: Ukraine would take de-escalatory steps only ‘if our American partners can secure Russia’s genuine readiness to end the war… honestly and on a long-term basis.’ The Kremlin went no further than Dmitry Peskov’s line that ‘any call on the Kyiv regime to stop strikes on civilian economic infrastructure can only be welcomed’ — a welcome, not an undertaking. Hours before Trump’s Sunday remark Ukraine had struck the TANECO refinery in Tatarstan. Three outlets reported the non-confirmation independently.

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The GuardianPBS NewsHourDeutsche Welle (DW)Al Jazeera English

Sep 14, 2026

So far, no one has seen any genuine willingness on Russia’s part to bring the war to an end. But if our American partners can secure Russia’s genuine readiness to end the war aimed at destroying lives, and to do so honestly and on a long-term basis, Ukraine will take its own de-escalatory steps.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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The GuardianPBS NewsHour

Sep 14, 2026

Both Sides Say October, Neither Says Yes

Kyrylo Budanov said Ukraine was readying a new trilateral round — ‘We’re preparing. For October’ — and Peskov said Russia did not rule out the possibility ‘in the foreseeable future’. Nothing has convened: the last trilateral sessions were in Abu Dhabi and Geneva in January and February. Scope has narrowed rather than widened. Russia rejected a ceasefire running alongside the talks; Ukraine’s asks are energy de-escalation and the unblocking of Black Sea grain, which Zelenskyy called ‘step number one’. On the format, Putin turned down meeting Zelenskyy at the G20, with Peskov saying he would receive him only in Moscow.

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Deutsche Welle (DW)Ukrainska Pravda

Sep 13, 2026

Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing: He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel. That’s hurting the world.

— Donald Trump

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Al Jazeera EnglishDeutsche Welle (DW)

Sep 12, 2026

President Putin [has] laid out his line of what he wants to achieve. If Ukraine wanted to withdraw to that line, then obviously we have the rest of the deal set up and put together. Ukraine right now does not want to do that.

— Jared Kushner

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Deutsche Welle (DW)

Sep 6, 2026

Trump's Envoys Reach Kyiv at Last, by Train

Witkoff and Kushner arrived at Kyiv's railway station on 6 September — neither had set foot in Ukraine before, and Russian strikes near Boryspil had closed the air route. Zelensky met them at Sofiiska Square, and the day ran to three rounds: a bilateral session on Ukraine's winter needs, security guarantees, economic guarantees and Patriot supplies; a second with his delegation; then a third joined by the national security advisers of Britain, France and Germany — the first time the European format assembled in August has sat inside the American channel rather than beside it. Zelensky said afterwards that Ukraine, Europe and the United States had agreed to meet again, though nobody named a date or a venue: “in Europe, in the United States, or perhaps again in Ukraine.”

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UkrinformUkrinformUkrinformUkrinformThe Kyiv Independent

Sep 6, 2026

We expect the war will continue — Ukraine is counting on US energy and air-defence support this winter, and does not expect an increase in Patriot supplies until next year.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent

Sep 6, 2026

I think we made a lot of progress in Moscow. We heard new ideas. You heard President Zelensky talk about a trilateral that we are hopeful will be announced in short order.

— Steve Witkoff

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UkrinformThe Kyiv Independent

Sep 5, 2026

Putin Sits Down With Trump's Envoys for Three Hours and Ten Minutes

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent three hours and ten minutes with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on 5 September, their first trip to Russia since January. Putin's foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the Americans had come better prepared than before, having “formulated a number of considerations about possible ways of settlement,” and called the talks constructive and frank. Nothing in the Russian position moved: Putin told them Russian forces were advancing and would meet their goals, and that the war's “root causes” had to be resolved; Peskov had restated the day before that Ukraine must withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk before any ceasefire. Gene Lange, the Treasury's acting sanctions czar, travelled with the envoys and met Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev in preparation — the clearest sign that sanctions were on the table.

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The New York TimesAxiosThe Kyiv Independent

Sep 5, 2026

For Three Days, Neither Capital Is Bombed

For the length of the envoys' shuttle, each side stopped hitting the other's capital. Peskov said on 5 September that Putin had ordered Russian forces not to strike Kyiv for three days from “midnight today” — he did not say which day — and hours later, after a call with the Americans, Zelensky said Ukraine would refrain from striking Moscow through the end of Monday, a halt on “the cities involved in the negotiation process.” It is the first reciprocal restraint since February, and it is narrow. Russian strikes elsewhere in Ukraine went on unabated, Kyiv's sirens sounded repeatedly on the 5th anyway, and a large attack had hit the capital's two main airports hours before it began. Moscow reported no drones downed and its airports running normally. The Atlantic later reported a Russian drone strike on the grounds of Boryspil airport at 9:12 a.m. on the 5th, the day Putin told the envoys Kyiv had not been struck since midnight; a US official denied it changed their route.

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UkrinformUkrinformThe New York TimesThe Kyiv IndependentAxiosThe Atlantic

Sep 3, 2026

Putin, in a Rare Upbeat Turn, Says the Two Sides Must Settle It Themselves

At the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on 3 September, Putin struck a rare optimistic note — there was a chance of an agreement, he said, and contacts with Ukraine continue, mostly through intelligence channels — while reframing the mediators' role. Russia and Ukraine must "primarily reach an agreement between themselves"; the United States, China and others could "support and help" but no more. It reads as a drift from the US-brokered "spirit of Anchorage" toward bilateral primacy. The optimism sat beside a jab: Putin again called Zelensky's warning about civilian flights over Russia "state terrorism." Both sides offered rare upbeat comments the same day.

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NV (Novoye Vremya)Reuters

Sep 3, 2026

Zelensky Says Trump's Envoys Will Come to Kyiv at Last — Dates Set, Not Kept

Zelensky said on 3 September that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had confirmed preliminary dates to visit Kyiv in the coming days — their first trip to Ukraine as Trump's intermediaries — and to return to Moscow, to work on restarting trilateral talks. "We have confirmation from them: there will be a meeting in Moscow, as well as one in Kyiv." Until now the two had discussed Ukraine's positions only outside the country. The caveat is this desk's recurring one: a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent the visit may still not happen. Announced, with dates — but nothing has convened.

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Kyiv PostThe Kyiv IndependentTelegram

Sep 2, 2026

Oh, he'd do it if I wanted it. But I want to do it when we're ready to make a peace deal. … I want to do it when that war is ending, and I think we will.

— Donald Trump

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Ukrinform

Sep 1, 2026

Russia will agree to peace talks only under a reliable peace plan guaranteeing that Ukraine "will never be anti-Russia" and "will never be a battering ram for the West"; Russia's war goals are unchanged, and Western proposals for a pause on the front are merely an attempt to let Ukraine regroup and rearm.

— Valentina Matviyenko

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RBC-Ukraine

Sep 1, 2026

For us, it’s a closed issue, it’s not up for discussion, the people living there have made their informed choice — they’ve tied their future to Russia.

— Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

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United Nations

Aug 31, 2026

US and Russian Finance Chiefs Meet on Trump's Peace Plan

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, around 31 August, to discuss Trump's peace plan — a rare US–Russia contact on the economic track while the negotiating table stays empty. The venue reconciles two accounts that had looked contradictory, one placing it at the G20 and one “in the United States”. Bessent said the US would give Russia no economic relief until it ends the war. A Ukrainian official said Kyiv knew “nothing” of it: the channel runs around Kyiv, not through it.

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The Kyiv IndependentNV (Novoye Vremya)Axios

Aug 30, 2026

There have long been proposals to hold a Putin-Trump-Zelensky summit. And you know our head of state's position well: such a meeting is possible only to formalize agreements. … Naturally, it is absolutely pointless for the presidents to meet to discuss all of this. They can meet only to finalize agreements. But actually working toward a settlement is exactly what the Kyiv side does not want.

— Dmitry Peskov Mixed

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MeduzaKyiv Post

Aug 29, 2026

The CIA Director Takes a Summit Proposal to Moscow Himself

John Ratcliffe put a Trump–Putin–Zelensky meeting to Russia's intelligence chiefs during his covert Moscow trip on 25 August, two sources briefed on the matter told Axios — the first time the CIA director has been personally involved in the diplomacy. He met SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov, partly to establish whether they could move Putin back toward US-mediated talks, and concluded Bortnikov could help restart them. The New York Times reported he gave Bortnikov a bleak assessment of Russia's position and urged a deal before it worsened. Washington briefed Zelensky on 28 August. Nothing has convened: no participant is on the record and the CIA declined to comment.

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Axios

Aug 28, 2026

Russia's military leadership has been tasked with preparing several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine, with Kyiv and Chernihiv identified as key areas. Indeed, several options were considered. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has developed possible response scenarios, including measures to defend, protect, and counter these actions.

— Pavlo Palisa

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The Kyiv IndependentAxios

Aug 27, 2026

Moscow Is Said to Have Written Off the Talks and Chosen Escalation

Russia has concluded that negotiations have reached a dead end and is preparing to escalate, weighing heavier conventional ballistic-missile attacks on Kyiv — including the centre of the capital — and on infrastructure in other cities, according to three people close to the Kremlin speaking to Bloomberg. The negotiating frameworks, on this account, have effectively collapsed and the two sides are back at square one. The sourcing is anonymous and uncorroborated, and it is recorded as a report rather than as a fact about strikes that have not happened. It lands the same day as the opposite claim from Kyiv: the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office said a new round could be revived as early as September. Both cannot be right about the same table.

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The Japan Times

Aug 27, 2026

A new round of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations could take place as early as September. The negotiations are paused but could soon be revived — “And with the Americans too. We can't do without them.”

— Kyrylo Budanov Mixed

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Kyiv PostKyiv PostAxios

Aug 24, 2026

Forty-Eight Countries Demand a Ceasefire, and the Broker Is Not Among Them

At a Security Council press stakeout on Ukraine's 35th Independence Day, Denmark's foreign minister read a statement for 48 states and the European Union urging Russia to accept a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and demanding prisoner exchanges, the release of the unlawfully detained and the return of deported Ukrainian children. The United States did not sign — as it declined comparable statements in May and in autumn 2025 — while brokering the framework the statement calls for. Russia's ambassador Vasily Nebenzya rejected it, saying attempts to “impose” a freeze under the guise of a ceasefire were “doomed to fail.”

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Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International AffairsKyiv PostUkrinform

Aug 23, 2026

A Buffer Zone Under Someone Else's Administration Appears on the Table

Zelensky set out on August 23 the framework he has worked up with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and one part of it is new. First a ceasefire. Second, an American proposal that Ukraine and Russia "take equal steps back" from the current line to create a buffer called a free economic zone, run by an unspecified third party — Zelensky said it is not yet clear which. Third, what the EU and NATO would provide and what Ukraine would give in return. He called the ideas joint with the Americans and Europeans and said everyone had responded positively. No session has convened: the last trilateral round was in Geneva on February 17–18, and a TASS source claimed the envoys' Kyiv and Moscow visits are postponed indefinitely, which ISW says it can neither support nor refute.

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UkrinformAnadolu AgencyInstitute for the Study of War

Aug 23, 2026

We believe that this is the most active stage at which diplomacy can lead to the end of the war. It's the end of this year and the end of summer 2027.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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Anadolu Agency

Aug 21, 2026

Russia remains ready for dialogue and to hear reasonable proposals, but only on the basis of the realities that have developed on the ground and in line with the goals set by its president — and the proposals now being conveyed to it are, in Putin's words, "exotic in nature and are unacceptable".

— Vladimir Putin Mixed

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The Kyiv IndependentAl Jazeera English

Aug 15, 2026

Britain, France and Germany Build a Format to Keep Europe at the Table

On 15 August The New York Times reported, citing five European officials, that the three governments are constructing a joint E3 format to represent Europe in any negotiation over the war. The stated fear is that Washington and Moscow could settle without them — leaving Europe to enforce the sanctions, decide the fate of frozen Russian assets and help defend whatever Ukraine was left with. France and Germany are shaping the position; Britain, under a new prime minister, is described as hesitant about the cost to its relationship with Donald Trump. Poland, Italy and the Nordic countries would be consulted and the EU brought in later, though Baltic states and Hungary are reported not to trust Paris and Berlin to speak for them. Britain’s Foreign Office called the discussion speculative; an EU representative said the various efforts were complementary rather than competing. The three form the core of the Coalition of the Willing, which has rehearsed a post-ceasefire deployment but never agreed to make one.

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Ukrainska PravdaRBC-UkraineEuromaidan Press

Aug 14, 2026

Moscow Rejects Both Offers and Restates the Terms It Has Not Moved From

A day later Russia’s Foreign Ministry closed both doors. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow saw "no signs of improvement in the situation and, consequently, no grounds for half-measures that merely grant the Kyiv regime temporary breathing space", said Russia had received no formalised Turkish appeal through official channels, and ruled out any return to the 2022-23 Black Sea Initiative, which she called a one-sided scheme the West had abused. She then restated what Russia says a settlement requires, in the same terms it has used for two years: elimination of the war’s "root causes" — NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s accession to it — plus guarantees for the Russian-speaking population in territory Kyiv still holds. Sergei Lavrov, in a separate interview the same day, accused both Turkey and the United States of never condemning Ukrainian strikes on Black Sea shipping. Together the two set out Moscow’s position plainly: it will receive envoys, and it will not trade.

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MeduzaThe Moscow TimesTürkiye TodayUkrainska Pravda

Aug 14, 2026

We are not refusing to talk to them, and if they come, they know that President Putin is ready to receive them again. The question is, what will they bring?

— Sergei Lavrov True

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Anadolu AgencyNV (Novoye Vremya)The New York TimesAxios

Aug 13, 2026

Kyiv Offers a Black Sea Truce, and Ankara Offers a Mechanism

On 13 August Ukraine passed Russia an offer of a mutual halt to attacks on civilian ships and port infrastructure in the Black Sea, routed through an intermediary country that no account names. It reached Moscow days after Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said Ankara had put its own proposal to both capitals — a moratorium on military action against merchant shipping, with a mechanism for declaring it. Neither offer specifies waters, duration, sequencing or any means of verification, and neither text has been published. Both arrived as Ukraine’s grain exports ran 76% below last August and shipowners abandoned Odesa; roughly nine-tenths of Ukraine’s farm exports normally leave through its deepwater Black Sea ports.

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Kyiv PostMeduzaEuromaidan PressUkrainska Pravda

Aug 12, 2026

Washington Asks Kyiv to Stop Hitting Tankers, and Kyiv Stops

The Financial Times reported on 12 August that Ukraine had halted its drone campaign against oil tankers using Novorossiysk after a request from Vice President JD Vance at the end of July, and that Kyiv had reaffirmed it would leave non-sanctioned foreign vessels alone. Washington’s concern was the oil market and the exposure of Chevron and ExxonMobil to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, whose Kazakh crude leaves through that port. Two days later Sergei Lavrov, complaining that neither Ankara nor Washington condemns Ukrainian strikes at sea, said in passing that Turkey and Vance had privately told Kyiv to leave the consortium alone — an adversary confirming the request from the other side of the table. It is the one instrument of pressure this month that visibly changed a party’s behaviour, and it was applied to Kyiv.

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Ukrainska PravdaKyiv Post

Aug 11, 2026

There was a report from our negotiating team. We passed our proposals to the American side.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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Kyiv PostThe Kyiv IndependentRubryka

Aug 5, 2026

Unlike Russia, Ukraine has long stated its readiness for a ceasefire and peace talks. We continue to work towards a lasting and just peace.

— Alexander Stubb Mixed

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European Pravda

Aug 5, 2026

A Back Channel Surfaces in Vienna

Former senior officials from Britain, France, Germany and Russia met confidentially in Vienna in July to explore what terms a negotiation might rest on. The meeting became public on 5 August, in a Bloomberg report that named three of the Western participants — Tim Barrow, until recently Britain’s national security adviser; Markus Ederer, a former German state secretary and EU ambassador to Moscow; and the French diplomat Pierre Vimont — while leaving the former Kremlin official unnamed. The Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue convened it; Ederer and Vimont sit on its board. Every government kept its distance: the German Foreign Office said the talks were held neither on its behalf nor in coordination with it, and Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, though Britain is reported to have welcomed the initiative and France to have been informed. It was the second such channel to surface within a month, after Azerbaijan’s president disclosed a July meeting in Baku between former German and Russian officials.

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Vindobona.orgCaliber.AzUkrainska Pravda

Aug 1, 2026

You're going to see some efforts over the next few weeks to see if we can't restart talks between the two sides and bring this war to an end. We also understand that both sides have some pretty strong red lines, and until we can bring those red lines a little closer together, we're not going to be there yet.

— Marco Rubio True

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Fox NewsUkrainska Pravda

Jul 25, 2026

A Russian Ally Asks Putin, in Public, to Freeze the War

Standing beside Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum in Omsk on July 25, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said out loud what none of Moscow's partners had said to his face: "If I may offer my humble opinion, since I have been asked, perhaps it is time to freeze this conflict and return to the Istanbul formula 2.0." He wrapped it in praise for Putin's "utmost diplomatic flexibility" and argued that guarantees from the great powers, "including Russia," could carry the two sides toward a settlement. "This must be brought to an end." Putin said nothing about it in the public part of the meeting. The refusal came afterwards and second-hand: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, giving an account of the private conversation, said Putin had told Tokayev that freezing the conflict "as such is impossible, given Kyiv's position" because Russia must first achieve its battlefield objectives, and repeated the standing formula that the fighting could stop "by the end of the day today" if Ukraine "makes the appropriate decisions" — which the Kremlin has defined since June 2024 as Ukrainian withdrawal from all of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts and abandonment of NATO accession. The exchange is worth the record for what it is rather than what it changed: a partner state, at a bilateral forum on Russian soil, publicly proposing the one thing the Kremlin has spent the year ruling out, and being publicly refused within a day. ISW assesses Putin used the meeting to justify continuing the war as he has been. Note the attribution chain on the refusal: Putin is not on the record on the freeze at all, and every account of what he said to Tokayev runs through his spokesman.

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The Moscow TimesInstitute for the Study of War

Jul 23, 2026

Russia's Anchorage proposals failed, and peace will come only through new concepts and ideas the United States is willing to support — there is no agreement with Russia to end the war.

— Marco Rubio Mixed

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United States Department of State

Jul 23, 2026

Trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, the United States and Russia will be held in the autumn of 2026 — though if the timing were up to me they would happen in July.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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RBC-UkraineBBC NewsAnadolu Agency

Jul 22, 2026

The situation on the front, together with our long-range sanctions and mid-range strikes, is creating a new atmosphere around Putin. A very toxic atmosphere. He alone is the reason this war began and hasn't ended. Putin alone is responsible for the losses Russians continue to suffer. His retinue understands this – they are signalling it to us and to our partners. Russian society is beginning to feel it more and more as well.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy

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Institute for the Study of War

Jul 22, 2026

Kremlin Hardens Demands, Rules Out Returning Occupied Border Regions

The Kremlin has hardened its negotiating position, Bloomberg reported on July 22, citing three people close to it: Moscow no longer intends to return occupied parts of Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv border regions in any settlement — planning to hold them as permanent buffer zones — while Putin remains determined to seize all of Donetsk by force and would return to serious talks only after doing so. An earlier informal proposal, in which Russia would hand back slices of Sumy and Kharkiv in exchange for Ukraine ceding the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk, is now off the table; the sources attributed the shift to the collapse of the 'spirit of Anchorage' understanding reached with President Trump, compounded by intensifying Ukrainian long-range strikes and US pressure. The hardening came the same day Zelenskyy spoke by phone with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about reinvigorating diplomacy — the two sides publicly further apart than ever on any route back to negotiations. The report rests on anonymous Kremlin sources and describes a stated position, not a confirmed outcome — but the Kremlin put the same position on the record the same day: spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 22 that Putin's June 2024 demands, complete Ukrainian withdrawal from the parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts Ukraine still holds and abandonment of NATO accession, remain the basis of Russia's conditions for ending the war.

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Bloomberg NewsKyiv PostUnited24 MediaInstitute for the Study of War

Earlier this year

Jul 16, 2026“There is no immediate prospect for resuming peace talks with Ukraine, though Russia remains open to it.” — Dmitry Peskov^{±Fact check: mixed}

Jul 15, 2026“I believe Vladimir Putin is ready to reach a peace agreement soon and I hope the war will conclude during my administration.” — Donald Trump^{✗Fact check: false}

Covered since Jul 2026Read it from the start →