Zelenskyy Confirms November Peace Talks

Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that a trilateral meeting between Kyiv, Washington, and Moscow is scheduled for November. The session aims to restart peace negotiations that have been stalled. The Ukrainian president stated that Ukraine is prepared to negotiate, adding that territorial disputes must be handled at the leadership level while other issues fall to technical groups. He also renewed his call for a direct meeting with Vladimir Putin, arguing that the Russian leader is the only official capable of making major decisions to end the conflict.

Zelenskyy specified the boundaries of the upcoming talks. Ukraine will not discuss limits on the size of its armed forces, nor will it accept enforced postwar neutrality. Kyiv continues to seek entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, despite hesitation from some member states.

US warnings about imminent Russian ballistic missile strikes have been fully restored, Zelenskyy said. He told TSN television that SpaceX’s Starshield satellite internet system had been operating at speeds of up to 420 kilometers per hour since early Saturday. This recovery followed a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo. The system had been throttled earlier in October under diplomatic pressure from Washington.

The United States has pressured Ukraine to suspend attacks on Russian oil refineries, citing higher energy prices. Zelenskyy said Kyiv will stop these strikes only if Moscow ceases attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure, if the US allows Starshield use over Russia to detect missile launches, or if the US supplies Patriot missiles.

Zelenskyy reported that Russia launched nearly 2,300 drones at Ukrainian cities over the past week. In an online post, he listed the specific numbers for the week: about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types including ballistic missiles, and almost 2,300 strike drones. He urged western allies to speed up deliveries of interceptors.

Russia’s defense ministry said its drones struck a cargo vessel bound for the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk during an overnight attack. Another cargo vessel en route to Odesa was hit during the day. The ministry claimed the vessels were supplying the Ukrainian army. Russian forces also hit a logistics center, a distribution center, and a logistics terminal in Kharkiv overnight. Reuters could not confirm these reports.

A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod killed three people and injured 13, local authorities said. A separate strike later that day killed another person. Regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said the overnight attack damaged 30 apartment buildings. In Bulgaria, the presidential election on Sunday ended in a runoff, with Andrey Gyurov, a pro-western reformist, facing incumbent Iliana Yotova, who favors dialogue with Russia.