MOSCOW – Russia will sit down with the United States and Ukraine for trilateral peace talks in November, the Kremlin confirmed – the strongest signal yet that Washington's full-court press to end the war may finally be gaining traction.

Presidential foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Moscow has agreed to resume the three-way negotiations after Nov. 10, capping a diplomatic whirlwind that saw President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff huddle with Russian President Vladimir Putin for roughly three hours at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg.

The talks – expected to be held at a technical level, with Abu Dhabi emerging as the likely venue – will zero in on one giant question: what a "security system for Russia and Ukraine" looks like once the guns fall silent.

"The trilateral talks will focus on building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends."

The announcement marks the first concrete commitment to three-way negotiations in months – and lands more than four-and-a-half years after Putin's full-scale invasion shattered European security.

'Some degree of momentum'

Witkoff, who arrived in St. Petersburg telling reporters there was "some degree of momentum" in the peace push, was joined at the table by Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev – while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner beamed in by video link, Ushakov said.

The envoy also thanked Putin for lifting Russia's ban on diesel exports, a move that angered some U.S. lawmakers but which Witkoff said would cut costs for American farmers and truckers.

The St. Petersburg summit came just a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo – a back-to-back shuttle that has diplomats whispering about a genuine breakthrough for the first time in a year.

"I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told NRK.

Trump turns up the heat on Zelenskyy

The Kremlin's green light comes as Trump publicly ratchets up pressure on Kyiv to cut a deal.

"We want Zelenskyy to make a deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We've given a lot to Ukraine. We've gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss."

Zelenskyy, for his part, has insisted only a summit of leaders can break the impasse – and told Fox News that freezing the conflict is the bare minimum.

"Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is the real way to end this war," Zelenskyy said.

Groundhog Day – and heavy doubts

Skeptics have heard this one before. The three countries held three rounds of trilateral negotiations earlier this year – twice in Abu Dhabi, then in Geneva – and got nowhere fast, with little progress beyond prisoner-of-war swaps as both sides dug in on their core demands.

And the war has not paused for the diplomats. Overnight Russian strikes killed at least five people and wounded 25 more across Ukraine, while Kyiv answered with one of its biggest aerial barrages of the entire war – more than 1,000 drones launched at Russia in a single night, setting an oil export terminal ablaze in St. Petersburg itself.

But the Kremlin served up one goodwill gesture for good measure: Moscow freed Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher imprisoned for more than four years, after Trump personally asked Putin for his release.

Now all eyes turn to November – and whether this time the momentum is real.