Steve Witkoff (seen from behind) at a meeting with Vladimir Putin on October 21
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21 for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. At the start of the meeting, Putin announced that Russia had freed Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen serving a prison sentence on mercenary charges related to his service with Ukraine’s territorial defense forces. Witkoff responded by describing Putin as a “humanitarian,” drawing criticism from senior U.S. politicians, including fellow Republicans. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended Witkoff. The following are among the most notable comments.
Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy
[To Putin:] You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you, and I thank you again.
Vladimir Putin is not our friend, and he is certainly no humanitarian. His relentless attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine show his total disregard for human life. Appeasement won’t end this war. Pressure will.
WTF, Steve? Look up the definition of “humanitarian.” What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say. You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend Putin is a “humanitarian.”
Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He is a murderous dictator who has killed thousands of Ukrainians in unspeakable acts of brutality. These comments are disgusting and shameful.
agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage. Whether you agree with the underlying sentiment or not, Steve Witkoff is a diplomat. His job is to go over there and get a job done. […] I care much less about what Steve said than about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family.
Well, I guess you have to say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out. […] But I wouldn’t say anything one way or the other.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Steve Witkoff (seen from behind) at a meeting with Vladimir Putin on October 21
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on October 21 for talks on ending the war in Ukraine. At the start of the meeting, Putin announced that Russia had freed Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen serving a prison sentence on mercenary charges related to his service with Ukraine’s territorial defense forces. Witkoff responded by describing Putin as a “humanitarian,” drawing criticism from senior U.S. politicians, including fellow Republicans. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended Witkoff. The following are among the most notable comments.
Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy
[To Putin:] You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you, and I thank you again.
Vladimir Putin is not our friend, and he is certainly no humanitarian. His relentless attacks on innocent civilians in Ukraine show his total disregard for human life. Appeasement won’t end this war. Pressure will.
WTF, Steve? Look up the definition of “humanitarian.” What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say. You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend Putin is a “humanitarian.”
Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. He is a murderous dictator who has killed thousands of Ukrainians in unspeakable acts of brutality. These comments are disgusting and shameful.
agree with Steve Witkoff saying something nice to a person who just released an American hostage. Whether you agree with the underlying sentiment or not, Steve Witkoff is a diplomat. His job is to go over there and get a job done. […] I care much less about what Steve said than about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home to his family.
Well, I guess you have to say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out. […] But I wouldn’t say anything one way or the other.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
In an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a correspondent for the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time about his talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and outlined Russia’s position.
Putin said Russia had agreed with U.S. representatives that it was ready to resume three-way talks. “The purpose of these talks will be to discuss how to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after peace agreements are reached — in their final form, not as the result of a pause in the fighting,” he said.
Zarubin also asked Putin about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement in a Fox News interview that he was prepared to freeze the conflict along the line of contact, retaining 75% of Ukraine’s territory (and losing 25%, as the question put it). Putin replied that it was “not their territory — it is the territory of historical Russia.”
Putin also claimed that Ukraine is the side that wants war, not Russia:
We don’t want to fight Ukraine. If Ukraine’s current leadership wants to fight, let it fight. But why does it think everyone should pay for it and supply it with weapons? […] We’re still ready to negotiate and look for ways out of this difficult situation. The Ukrainian people are very close to us. The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
It is unclear which “latest genetic studies” he was referring to.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
In an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a correspondent for the Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time about his talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and outlined Russia’s position.
Putin said Russia had agreed with U.S. representatives that it was ready to resume three-way talks. “The purpose of these talks will be to discuss how to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after peace agreements are reached — in their final form, not as the result of a pause in the fighting,” he said.
Zarubin also asked Putin about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement in a Fox News interview that he was prepared to freeze the conflict along the line of contact, retaining 75% of Ukraine’s territory (and losing 25%, as the question put it). Putin replied that it was “not their territory — it is the territory of historical Russia.”
Putin also claimed that Ukraine is the side that wants war, not Russia:
We don’t want to fight Ukraine. If Ukraine’s current leadership wants to fight, let it fight. But why does it think everyone should pay for it and supply it with weapons? […] We’re still ready to negotiate and look for ways out of this difficult situation. The Ukrainian people are very close to us. The latest genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
It is unclear which “latest genetic studies” he was referring to.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a joint press conference in Kyiv. September 6, 2026
On October 20, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and representatives of European countries in Oslo, where he presented his proposals for a peace settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking at a press conference after the talks, Zelensky said Ukraine and the West had “clear ideas about how to achieve peace.” One was to arrange a three-way meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Zelensky himself “to resolve issues that only leaders can address.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who also attended the meeting, said the talks had yielded “real progress on two levels”: in the short term and “in the broader context.” He said the discussion focused on key issues: air defense, energy facilities, and the possibility of a partial ceasefire.
Sources told Axios that participants in the Oslo meeting focused on developing a framework agreement to end the war that they could propose to Russia.
Axios reported that the parties made “meaningful progress” and reached “a full mutual understanding at the working level” on the next steps. Sources also told Axios that Jared Kushner, the U.S. special envoy for peace and the president’s son-in-law, again asked Ukraine at the meeting to stop striking Russian oil refineries.
The following day, Witkoff flew to St. Petersburg, where he met with Putin. Afterward, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was ready to resume three-way talks involving the United States in November.
The Oslo meeting drew little enthusiasm in Kyiv, a source close to the Ukrainian president’s office told Meduza.
The main problem is that Russia continues to insist on recognition of its control over occupied Crimea and the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions — including areas it does not control.
“For us, this [new round of U.S. talks with Ukraine and Russia] changes nothing, because there’s a consensus here: Ukraine will not give up its territory,” Meduza’s source said:
We’re ready for a ceasefire along the line of contact right now — with security guarantees from the United States [a bilateral agreement between Washington and Kyiv modeled on Article 5 of the NATO treaty]. But Putin doesn’t want to freeze the conflict along the line of contact.
In an October 21 interview with Fox News, Zelensky said he was ready for a ceasefire along the current front lines, provided that further negotiations followed and Ukraine received security guarantees. He was responding to a journalist’s question about a possible peace agreement that would freeze the current front lines and leave “75% or more” of the country’s territory under Kyiv’s control.
In early October, Russia and the United States reached a deal on Russian diesel fuel supplies to U.S. and global markets. In the middle of the month, sources told The New York Times that the Trump administration had proposed to Ukrainian and European officials, including Zelensky, that they resume trade in Russian gas as part of negotiations to end the war. The newspaper reported that Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are promoting the idea.
Meduza’s source declined to say how Kyiv had received the proposal.
In mid-October, the Ukrainian military command reported that drones equipped with Starshield, the military counterpart to Starlink terminals, had begun losing their connections at speeds above 160 kilometers per hour. The military said this had caused several operations to fail.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said that “this cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation,” referring to the conflict between Zelensky and Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that relations between Zelensky and Trump were at their “lowest point” since their Oval Office clash in early 2025.
According to Meduza’s source, Starlink in Ukraine does indeed start malfunctioning at 120 kilometers per hour and “no longer works” above 130 kilometers per hour, even though drones need to fly that fast to strike military targets. He declined to explain why this was happening.
In mid-October, Kyiv said that during several Russian strikes, the Ukrainian military had received no attack data from the U.S. satellite system that provides early warning of ballistic missile launches. The United States gave Ukraine access to the system at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Meduza’s source close to Zelensky’s office confirmed that, at one point, Kyiv had not been receiving U.S. intelligence on “some Russian missile launches.” “Now we can see everything again,” he said.
He said Trump was trying to pressure Ukraine through these actions.
Western media previously reported that the idea of restricting connections based on speed came from SpaceX owner Elon Musk, who proposed it to Trump. Musk denied this.
Meduza’s source close to the president’s office believes that “indirectly, all of this [Trump’s policies] is pushing Zelensky toward a soft capitulation”:
The Americans are pushing Kyiv to accept that it’ll inevitably have to do this, so it’s better to discuss how to [capitulate] at less cost to Ukraine, in exchange for some sort of security guarantees, rather than discuss Ukraine’s terms [for a ceasefire]. They’re offering us investment, reconstruction… It’s hard to say where all this will lead.
Russian comments on American efforts to restart negotiations have also reflected some uncertainty. After Putin’s meeting with Witkoff, a correspondent for Vesti asked Ushakov whether the war was nearing an end. His answer could be read two ways: “I don’t know how much closer we’re getting, but that’s where things are heading.”
Meduza’s source in Kyiv said Russia had stepped up its attacks on Ukraine as news of the talks emerged:
In places that used to be relatively quiet — Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Lutsk — attacks have become about 10 times as intense. They’re sending 20 to 30 jet-powered drones there every day. They’re already hitting central Kyiv with Iskander missiles carrying cluster warheads.
The Russians will probably step up their terror attacks on the government district. They’re already hitting bridges. It’s already like Aleppo. For some reason, the Russians keep believing this will get results and Zelensky will agree to terms that amount to capitulation. But people won’t accept that, and neither will the government.
After Witkoff’s departure, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles on the night of October 21–22. One person was killed in Kyiv and more than 20 were injured. Commenting on the attack, Zelensky said it showed there had been no “real changes in [Russia’s] attitude toward everything that is happening.”
Ukraine, in turn, launched drone strikes on several Russian regions that same night, including Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region. Two people were injured in New Moscow.
Meduza’s source believes that despite U.S. pressure and Russia’s intensified attacks on Ukraine, Zelensky “will keep trying to salvage something from even the worst situation until the very end” — “that’s just who he is.”
Volodymyr Fesenko, head of Ukraine’s Penta Center for Applied Political Studies, sees the resumption of talks as a positive development in itself: “Bad negotiations with little chance of success are better than no negotiations.”
Fesenko called Russia’s agreement to resume three-way meetings a tactical move and “a continuation of its efforts to court Trump.” In his view, Russia’s willingness to participate in this format does not, in itself, mean there is any substantive discussion yet about ending the war:
If the Trump administration keeps using its current approach (continually making concessions to Russia upfront and trying to draw it into peace talks with more gifts — what Witkoff is doing), this strategy has no chance of success. Unfortunately, it will only fuel the war.
In Fesenko’s view, the main problem with the current negotiations is the lack of “clear signs that Russia is actually ready to negotiate an end to hostilities.” He believes the Kremlin will not engage seriously in negotiations until Moscow understands that it cannot win the war:
Ukraine is short of air defense systems, and Russia’s advantage in ballistic missiles gives it the upper hand in the air war. Putin hopes to break Ukraine this winter by using airstrikes to destroy its energy infrastructure and economy. If Ukraine makes it through the winter, and if the imbalance in the air war can be reduced at least somewhat, the chances of real negotiations will improve.
Commentary from Meduza’s Explainers desk
Ukraine and Russia have long accused each other of having no real desire to end the war. Both Kyiv and Moscow insist that the war can end only on their own terms.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to negotiate only after Ukrainian forces leave the Donbas — either voluntarily or as a result of a Russian military operation. The Kremlin has not publicly stated its official position on the territory of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are listed as Russian regions in Russia’s Constitution. However, according to leaks to Western media, at the Anchorage summit, Putin and Trump discussed dividing the two regions along the current line of contact. “Once Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, the fighting will stop. If they don’t leave, we will achieve this by force,” Putin said in November 2025. The Kremlin’s official position has not changed since then.
Kyiv insists that the only possible basis for a ceasefire is freezing the current lines of control along the front, including in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Zelensky believes Russia will not be able to seize by force all the territory that remains under Ukrainian military control.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Donald Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Trump expressed frustration that the system still had a speed cap of about 160 kilometers per hour, the newspaper’s sources said. The restriction left some Ukrainian attack drones and interceptor drones ineffective against Russian attacks. The Journal reported that Trump and Musk spoke after it published a report saying Musk himself had ordered the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials said the system began working “more normally” shortly after Trump’s conversation with Musk.
Ukrainian drone commanders on the front line said the Starlink restrictions had been lifted, according to Oliver Carroll, a journalist for The Economist. “They are still doing tests but ‘this looks to be the case,’” Carroll wrote.
On October 14, the Ukrainian military reported encountering restrictions on Starlink satellite communications terminals — specifically, their military version, Starshield. Drones lost their connection when flying faster than 160 kilometers per hour.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Donald Trump called Elon Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on the military version of Starlink in Ukraine, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Trump expressed frustration that the system still had a speed cap of about 160 kilometers per hour, the newspaper’s sources said. The restriction left some Ukrainian attack drones and interceptor drones ineffective against Russian attacks. The Journal reported that Trump and Musk spoke after it published a report saying Musk himself had ordered the restrictions on Starlink in Ukraine.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials said the system began working “more normally” shortly after Trump’s conversation with Musk.
Ukrainian drone commanders on the front line said the Starlink restrictions had been lifted, according to Oliver Carroll, a journalist for The Economist. “They are still doing tests but ‘this looks to be the case,’” Carroll wrote.
On October 14, the Ukrainian military reported encountering restrictions on Starlink satellite communications terminals — specifically, their military version, Starshield. Drones lost their connection when flying faster than 160 kilometers per hour.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
A new installment of our “Emigrant Questionnaire” series! Our first questionnaire was completed by Monetochka, who lives in Vilnius, and the second by Elmira Drau, a 32-year-old English teacher in Yerevan. This time, journalist Vladimir Raevsky tells us about life in London.
Where do you live, and how long have you lived there?
I’ve been living in London for three years now.
What do you love most about your new country?
Do you know why British writers so often come up with worlds within worlds? Like in “Harry Potter,” for example, or “The Chronicles of Narnia.” I think it has something to do with Britain being a world of its own within the wider world. And once you find yourself in it, it’s exactly where you want to be.
London and I are a perfect match. We’re compatible in every way. Nothing here pisses me off, I like everything, I find everything fascinating. And I can never quite figure it all out.
The first time I went down into the Tube, I looked around: two dudes in turbans sitting here, some Africans over there, Slavic women with foot-and-a-half-long nails over here. And right then I knew I was where I belonged. This is exactly the kind of society I want to live in — with lots of different people, all sharing a sense of friendliness, openness, curiosity about one another, and a rejection of violence.
No one here has ever tutted when I’ve bumped into them (which I do constantly) or rushed me when I’ve tried to tap my door key instead of my card on the Tube (it’s happened more than once). I feel completely at home here.
What was hardest to get used to in your new country?
I always always laugh it off and say my biggest complaint is that you need an adapter to plug a European plug into the outlets here. Or that cell reception is bad indoors. That British people have loudspeakers implanted in their throats as children and don’t realize it. That’s about the level of my beef with London. There’s nothing here I really dislike.
That said, London is an expensive, difficult city. You can’t say life here is easy. There are cities where all you have to do is show up and live: find a comfortable balance between work and the rest of your life, live in a way that makes you happy and comfortable. London is demanding. It makes you stand up straight and get moving.
It’s very hard to survive here if you’re just tired and doing nothing. You can’t afford to be tired here. You have to keep moving and working. You have to be focused, active, involved, willing to take the initiative. Sociable, extroverted. I think that makes things somewhat difficult. It’s a bit like the gym. Would someone in their right mind walk up and lift some heavy damn thing? Well, probably not. But you have to do it. And it’s the same here.
What’s your favorite place in your new city?
The British Museum — admission is free. I love popping in for 15 minutes to remind myself why the Parthenon Marbles should stay here forever.
Courtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir Raevsky
What’s your favorite local food?
Boiled eel, pork cracklings, overripe cucumbers (I’m joking, of course — it’s all inedible, but someone has to give that answer, right?).
Have you taken up any new hobbies since moving abroad?
Tramping through mud in rubber boots among thickets of thistles, looking around and exclaiming, “It’s so beautiful!”
My wife and I have friends here who gave up drinking completely about three years ago. The way they tell it, it used to go like this: you’d go to the pub on Friday, get up to all kinds of trouble, have a hangover the next morning — the whole weekend revolved around drinking. Then they stopped drinking and had nothing to do. So they started going on little hikes every single weekend — literally every weekend, except when they were on vacation or sick. Just because they had nothing to do. And it turned out to be a great replacement for hanging out at the pub.
There’s a group chat where they organize these little hikes. Usually you get on a train at one of London’s stations, and an hour or an hour and a half later you’re somewhere amazing. You walk along the coast, or over some hills, or up to a castle. And you’re out there for two to four hours.
Once, we spotted a great route in an Instagram reel. It looked so beautiful: along the coast, over hills, through thickets. We went there in November or February — some pretty horrible month. All the plants were bare, and everything squelched underfoot. We ended up getting lost and finding ourselves in these hellish thorn bushes that clung to us from every side. It felt like we’d wandered into some forest out of “Harry Potter” that was attacking us and stabbing us with thorns. We finally came out with our clothes torn and thorns all over us. Our shoes were caked in mud. We looked at each other and said, “God, this is wonderful.”
That evening, we’d been invited to a housewarming party in a big, very beautiful house. And we showed up in these clodhoppers, covered in mud, and said, “We’ve been on a hike.” And everyone understood.
Courtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir Raevsky
Have you managed to make new friends? How?
Most of our social circle here speaks Russian. They’re people from different countries: Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus. And we have some English-speaking friends. Or, if not friends, then just people we enjoy meeting up and spending time with.
For example, once before Christmas, we went to the pub for a beer with friends of friends. One of them was my friend’s husband, Chris. A couple of months later, he invited me to Burns Night — a party celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday, where we ate haggis and sang Scottish songs.
At one point I asked if I could say something and told them that, surprising as it might seem, Robert Burns was very popular in Russia — thanks to a man who loved his work and translated a lot of it, brilliantly. That was Samuil Marshak. I told them a little about Marshak and said, “Let me recite a Burns poem in Russian, and someone here can do it in English.” And I recited “My Heart’s in the Highlands,” which every Russian knows from school. It made quite an impression. It was exotic: as if people in, say, Albania loved Lermontov, or people in Cameroon read Yesenin.
Do you have enough money to live in your new country? How do you deal with financial problems?
I think the only people in London with “enough” money are the ones who made it under Queen Victoria.
So you have to deal with financial problems by earning money. You have to hustle a lot. But I moved here from Israel, so I was already somewhat prepared for life in an expensive country. Though in Tel Aviv, it’s impossible to understand what you’re paying all that crazy money for.
Here, on the whole, you can live on any budget. Okay, you won’t shop at some expensive supermarket — but the cheaper one won’t be unpleasant, and you won’t feel excluded. Or, say, if you have plenty of money, you buy theater tickets in, let’s say, the fifth row of the orchestra. If you don’t, you get early-bird tickets, or enter ticket lotteries, or go to free classical concerts at churches, or figure something else out.
You really can live here even if you don’t have much money — and not feel like you’re somehow less than everyone else because of it.
Courtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir Raevsky
What do you do to learn the new language?
I make reels in English and try to be funny in them… And I try to do everything I do in my native language: make friends, talk to people in the pub, write things, comment on people’s Instagram posts.
You constantly have to work on your English — especially here. On the one hand, it’s a universal language, and you feel like you can read, write, conduct interviews, do anything in English. But in London the bar immediately goes up: people here have been speaking this language for centuries, writing books and poetry in it, picking up on all sorts of nuances. So however well you know the language, you still feel you have to keep learning.
But of course, it’s paradise compared with living in a country where you don’t know the language. You can read anything. You can go on any website. You can talk to anyone. You have no trouble reading anything at an exhibition or in a newspaper. That’s an enormous privilege.
If you have children, would you want them to become locals?
They’ll have Hobson’s choice (google it).
How do you cope with intense homesickness? Do you get homesick at all?
What I miss most is snow, but last winter it snowed in Scotland, and I walked around in it to my heart’s content. And somewhere deep down, I was glad it wasn’t going to last five months.
Courtesy of Vladimir RaevskyCourtesy of Vladimir Raevsky
Do you feel you’re losing touch with your home country? Is it possible to keep that connection?
We’re in touch…
First, I have friends and other people close to me in Russia — we’re literally in touch. We can message each other, send reels or memes, talk on the phone. Fortunately, that connection hasn’t been broken.
And second, there are things happening in Russia that worry me enormously. Everyone has an issue that’s personal to them — for me, it’s political prisoners. I have several friends who are in prison. And I stay in touch with them, their loved ones, their lawyers.
I think this is a good moment to remind people that you can write to Russian political prisoners. And don’t let the fact that they’re there and you’re somewhere else stop you. They’ll be happy to get a letter from anywhere.
Are you happy living abroad?
Very!
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Singer Yegor Kreed faced fierce criticism from “patriotic” commentators after appearing in his new music video, “Mily ublyudok” (“Sweet Bastard”), wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a design inspired by the Soviet film “Come and See” (“Idi i smotri”).
“Come and See,” directed by Elem Klimov, was released in 1985 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II.
The film follows a boy who goes from a cheerful teenager to a gray-haired old man after witnessing the Nazis burn the residents of a Belarusian village alive during a punitive operation.
Readers of Sovetsky Ekran magazine voted it the best film of 1986. Many viewers still consider “Come and See” one of the hardest-to-watch films about World War II.
Moscow concept store KM20 produced the shirt in collaboration with the American brand Marking Distance. Its design is based on the official poster for “Come and See,” which features a large illustration of the main character’s face. On the shirt, tattoos have been added to the face, assault rifles appear on the sleeves, and machine-gun ammunition belts appear on the back. KM20’s website listed the shirt for 38,600 rubles.
After social media users noticed the shirt, pro-government commentators began denouncing Kreed, accusing him of disrespecting the memory of the victims of World War II. Activists in Yekaterinburg filed complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, demanding that Kreed be prosecuted under the law against insulting the memory of victims of the genocide of the Soviet people.
Among Kreed’s critics was Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, who reports various “offenders” to the authorities. She said the shirt was no accident but part of an “effort to wipe humanity’s historical memory clean.” “Western leaders want to erase from the minds of people around the world the memory of how their grandfathers burned people in gas chambers and shot Jews, Slavs and people of other nationalities by the thousands,” she said. Mizulina, who is married to pop singer Shaman, has clashed publicly with Kreed before: She criticized as “indecent” a routine performed by a dancer in lingerie at his concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in summer 2025.
Kreed apologized for wearing the shirt. He said he had never seen or heard of the film and therefore did not know the image was based on the poster for “Come and See.” To him, Kreed said, it was “just a designer item sitting on a shelf, available for anyone to buy.”
I want to say something important: The memory of the Great Patriotic War and the tragedy people endured is sacred to me. This is our shared history, and I will always treat it with respect.
The musician also stressed that he had intended “no political or historical message” with the outfit.
The image was eventually blurred in Kreed’s official music video. KM20 pulled the shirt from its online store and deleted a post about Kreed’s video from its social media accounts. The brand’s owners have not commented publicly on the controversy. The Mosfilm studio said it had not granted KM20 permission to use the “Come and See” poster and is consulting lawyers. The studio said the “distortion” of the poster was “unacceptable.”
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Singer Yegor Kreed faced fierce criticism from “patriotic” commentators after appearing in his new music video, “Mily ublyudok” (“Sweet Bastard”), wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with a design inspired by the Soviet film “Come and See” (“Idi i smotri”).
“Come and See,” directed by Elem Klimov, was released in 1985 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II.
The film follows a boy who goes from a cheerful teenager to a gray-haired old man after witnessing the Nazis burn the residents of a Belarusian village alive during a punitive operation.
Readers of Sovetsky Ekran magazine voted it the best film of 1986. Many viewers still consider “Come and See” one of the hardest-to-watch films about World War II.
Moscow concept store KM20 produced the shirt in collaboration with the American brand Marking Distance. Its design is based on the official poster for “Come and See,” which features a large illustration of the main character’s face. On the shirt, tattoos have been added to the face, assault rifles appear on the sleeves, and machine-gun ammunition belts appear on the back. KM20’s website listed the shirt for 38,600 rubles.
After social media users noticed the shirt, pro-government commentators began denouncing Kreed, accusing him of disrespecting the memory of the victims of World War II. Activists in Yekaterinburg filed complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, demanding that Kreed be prosecuted under the law against insulting the memory of victims of the genocide of the Soviet people.
Among Kreed’s critics was Yekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, who reports various “offenders” to the authorities. She said the shirt was no accident but part of an “effort to wipe humanity’s historical memory clean.” “Western leaders want to erase from the minds of people around the world the memory of how their grandfathers burned people in gas chambers and shot Jews, Slavs and people of other nationalities by the thousands,” she said. Mizulina, who is married to pop singer Shaman, has clashed publicly with Kreed before: She criticized as “indecent” a routine performed by a dancer in lingerie at his concert at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium in summer 2025.
Kreed apologized for wearing the shirt. He said he had never seen or heard of the film and therefore did not know the image was based on the poster for “Come and See.” To him, Kreed said, it was “just a designer item sitting on a shelf, available for anyone to buy.”
I want to say something important: The memory of the Great Patriotic War and the tragedy people endured is sacred to me. This is our shared history, and I will always treat it with respect.
The musician also stressed that he had intended “no political or historical message” with the outfit.
The image was eventually blurred in Kreed’s official music video. KM20 pulled the shirt from its online store and deleted a post about Kreed’s video from its social media accounts. The brand’s owners have not commented publicly on the controversy. The Mosfilm studio said it had not granted KM20 permission to use the “Come and See” poster and is consulting lawyers. The studio said the “distortion” of the poster was “unacceptable.”
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Officers from Poland’s Internal Security Agency have detained a 22-year-old Georgian citizen in connection with the murder of Russian performance artist Semyon Skrepetsky, said Tomasz Siemoniak, the coordinator of Poland’s intelligence services.
RMF24 identified the man as Makhmud A. The outlet reported that he helped the suspected killer, who had been detained earlier, by keeping Skrepetsky’s home under surveillance and gathering information about his habits.
Makhmud A. arrived in Poland the day before he was detained and was traveling with two other Georgian citizens. The other two were expelled from the country, RMF24 reported.
Makhmud A. was charged with aiding and abetting murder and illegally possessing weapons and ammunition. He denied the charges.
Russian performance artist Semyon Skrepetsky was killed on June 15 in the Polish city of Biała Podlaska. The first suspect in his murder was detained near Warsaw on June 18. Police said he “was using a passport issued in the name of a 36-year-old Georgian citizen.”
Skrepetsky was known for his caricatures of figures including Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov. He moved to Poland in 2021, fearing persecution. On June 12 — three days before his murder — he staged a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin. He brought a painting depicting Putin in Stalin’s arms to the embassy. After the protest, Skrepetsky received threats, which he wrote about on his Telegram channel on the day he was killed.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Officers from Poland’s Internal Security Agency have detained a 22-year-old Georgian citizen in connection with the murder of Russian performance artist Semyon Skrepetsky, said Tomasz Siemoniak, the coordinator of Poland’s intelligence services.
RMF24 identified the man as Makhmud A. The outlet reported that he helped the suspected killer, who had been detained earlier, by keeping Skrepetsky’s home under surveillance and gathering information about his habits.
Makhmud A. arrived in Poland the day before he was detained and was traveling with two other Georgian citizens. The other two were expelled from the country, RMF24 reported.
Makhmud A. was charged with aiding and abetting murder and illegally possessing weapons and ammunition. He denied the charges.
Russian performance artist Semyon Skrepetsky was killed on June 15 in the Polish city of Biała Podlaska. The first suspect in his murder was detained near Warsaw on June 18. Police said he “was using a passport issued in the name of a 36-year-old Georgian citizen.”
Skrepetsky was known for his caricatures of figures including Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov. He moved to Poland in 2021, fearing persecution. On June 12 — three days before his murder — he staged a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin. He brought a painting depicting Putin in Stalin’s arms to the embassy. After the protest, Skrepetsky received threats, which he wrote about on his Telegram channel on the day he was killed.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Every fact in the Russian Justice Ministry’s online exhibition was checked, and the “foreign agents” who found errors in it were knowingly spreading false information, Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko said in a TASS interview cited by the news outlet Agentstvo.
In late July, the Justice Ministry posted an exhibition on its website titled “Zashchita suvereniteta Rossiyskogo gosudarstva. Istoriya i sovremennost” (“Protecting the Sovereignty of the Russian State: Past and Present”), about attempts to “violate the sovereignty” of Russia. Independent journalists found a propaganda film about Hitler in the section containing photographs and documentaries. Elsewhere in the exhibition, they found numerous errors, including factual ones, and signs that artificial intelligence had been used to write the text.
In the interview, Sviridenko was asked whether he had expected such a strong response from “foreign-agent media outlets.”
Sviridenko called the attention “foreign agents” paid to the project “a predictable reaction.” “Their job is to spread distorted information among Russian citizens, falsify history, and replace facts with interpretations that serve their Western ‘employers,’” he said.
He said all the exhibition materials had been prepared with input from “historians, representatives of Russia’s leading museums, historical institutions, and organizations involved in historical scholarship.” Sviridenko said every fact in the exhibition had been checked against primary sources in archives.
The information foreign agents spread has no scholarly basis; it is purely political and deceitful. They don’t deal in facts because the facts work against them. Instead, as always, they use emotionally charged labels and baseless accusations aimed at an audience that lacks the background to assess them.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Every fact in the Russian Justice Ministry’s online exhibition was checked, and the “foreign agents” who found errors in it were knowingly spreading false information, Deputy Justice Minister Oleg Sviridenko said in a TASS interview cited by the news outlet Agentstvo.
In late July, the Justice Ministry posted an exhibition on its website titled “Zashchita suvereniteta Rossiyskogo gosudarstva. Istoriya i sovremennost” (“Protecting the Sovereignty of the Russian State: Past and Present”), about attempts to “violate the sovereignty” of Russia. Independent journalists found a propaganda film about Hitler in the section containing photographs and documentaries. Elsewhere in the exhibition, they found numerous errors, including factual ones, and signs that artificial intelligence had been used to write the text.
In the interview, Sviridenko was asked whether he had expected such a strong response from “foreign-agent media outlets.”
Sviridenko called the attention “foreign agents” paid to the project “a predictable reaction.” “Their job is to spread distorted information among Russian citizens, falsify history, and replace facts with interpretations that serve their Western ‘employers,’” he said.
He said all the exhibition materials had been prepared with input from “historians, representatives of Russia’s leading museums, historical institutions, and organizations involved in historical scholarship.” Sviridenko said every fact in the exhibition had been checked against primary sources in archives.
The information foreign agents spread has no scholarly basis; it is purely political and deceitful. They don’t deal in facts because the facts work against them. Instead, as always, they use emotionally charged labels and baseless accusations aimed at an audience that lacks the background to assess them.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Warning: This article contains profanity and descriptions of sexual violence.
Irina, a St. Petersburg resident, has accused an officer at Police Station No. 14 in the city’s Frunzensky District of abuse, beatings, and sexual violence.
It began on October 10, when she filed a police report alleging rape. According to Irina, the day before, she had agreed to visit a man she had met a while earlier through the Daivinchik dating bot. She had occasionally messaged with him, mostly about soccer. Two other people were at the apartment: the host’s brother and a friend of his. Two of the men are police academy cadets, including the man she accuses of rape.
The men and Irina “drank, chatted, and played cards.” “Everyone got pretty drunk, including me,” Irina wrote on Telegram. She said she had no money for a taxi home, so she decided to stay until public transportation started running.
Irina alleges that the host took advantage of her incapacitated state and had unprotected sex with her, without her affirmative consent. “He took advantage of the situation — basically, the fact that I was so drunk I could barely move or say anything,” Irina wrote.
Then, she said, the host took her outside, said, “The stop’s over there. Bye,” and went back inside. Irina went home and slept all day, then went to the police the following day to report the rape. The police accepted her report, although one female officer told her that “it was her own fault, that she should have had the sense to avoid getting into situations like that.” Irina said she spent at least two hours at the station. An acquaintance who had accompanied her was sent home after being told, “This is going to take a while.”
Irina returned home, but about two hours later, the police called and told her she needed to come back to add to her report and undergo a medical examination. According to Irina, the officers refused to let her wait until the next day and came to pick her up and take her to the station.
Mediazona reported that leaked data links the phone number used to call her to Nikita Severov. Phone directory apps list him as an investigator in the Admiralteysky District.
Irina alleges that one of the officers at the station began abusing her. He repeatedly made her strip down “to her socks,” grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the floor, jumped up and down on her, slammed her head “against whatever was there,” and “touched her all over while hitting her.” He threatened to “fuck” her, suggested they “sleep together,” forced her to her knees and moved her face toward his crotch, and said that “all girls like pain.” According to Irina, the officer said that “the Investigative Committee wouldn’t believe her, and neither would anyone else.”
At one point, Irina said, the man she accuses of rape was also brought to the station. He, too, was hit several times, and the officer said, “Two fuckheads couldn’t settle something, and now I’ve got to sit here all night dealing with it.” According to Irina, the officer demanded that they “reconcile,” after which the man she accuses of rape offered her money. She refused.
Other officers watched, including Nikita, whose surname Irina did not give in her post. “He said I was ruining the guy’s life and that he would kick me to death right there,” Irina told Mediazona.
She told the outlet that when she arrived at the station, she was told she would be speaking with the station chief. On Telegram, Irina wrote that the officer who abused her “didn’t introduce himself.”
According to Irina, the abuse lasted four to five hours. She published tracking data from the 2GIS app showing that she was at the police station from 12:42 a.m. to 5:45 a.m.
Afterward, Irina hurriedly left St. Petersburg and flew to Kamchatka, where her family lives. She published her first Telegram post about what had happened while she was already on her way. In Kamchatka, Irina sought medical attention and was diagnosed with a closed traumatic brain injury and bruising of the soft tissues of her head. She also reported the incident to the Investigative Committee’s office in Yelizovo, Kamchatka Krai. According to Irina, investigators there told her they would “send everything to St. Petersburg, since that’s where it happened.”
In another post on October 21, Irina indicated that before going to the police, she had told someone she had been in contact with for two years about the rape, and he “decided to take advantage of the situation and started trying to extort money from that guy.” Irina maintains that she stopped the extortion attempts, but the police learned about them. (Her post indicates that the officers examined the messages on her phone, including those she sent after her first visit to the station.) According to Irina, the police deleted the messages in which she tried to dissuade her acquaintance from extorting money, but an archived copy of the conversation survived. When she told this person that she had been beaten because of his extortion, Irina said, he cut off contact with her.
As of publication, no official inquiry into St. Petersburg’s Police Station No. 14 had been announced. Journalists from the news outlet Bumaga reached the station chief by phone. He said the Investigative Committee was looking into what had happened overnight on October 10–11. The station chief categorically denied any involvement in the abuse of Irina. Investigative Committee officials in Yelizovo told Irina that the committee’s St. Petersburg office had taken an interest in the case and that she had been summoned for an interview.
In comments to Mediazona, the Team Against Torture, which helps victims of police violence, described the abuse Irina reported as “the height of cruelty.” “We can’t remember the last time we saw violence this severe in St. Petersburg or elsewhere in Russia,” the human rights advocates said.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Warning: This article contains profanity and descriptions of sexual violence.
Irina, a St. Petersburg resident, has accused an officer at Police Station No. 14 in the city’s Frunzensky District of abuse, beatings, and sexual violence.
It began on October 10, when she filed a police report alleging rape. According to Irina, the day before, she had agreed to visit a man she had met a while earlier through the Daivinchik dating bot. She had occasionally messaged with him, mostly about soccer. Two other people were at the apartment: the host’s brother and a friend of his. Two of the men are police academy cadets, including the man she accuses of rape.
The men and Irina “drank, chatted, and played cards.” “Everyone got pretty drunk, including me,” Irina wrote on Telegram. She said she had no money for a taxi home, so she decided to stay until public transportation started running.
Irina alleges that the host took advantage of her incapacitated state and had unprotected sex with her, without her affirmative consent. “He took advantage of the situation — basically, the fact that I was so drunk I could barely move or say anything,” Irina wrote.
Then, she said, the host took her outside, said, “The stop’s over there. Bye,” and went back inside. Irina went home and slept all day, then went to the police the following day to report the rape. The police accepted her report, although one female officer told her that “it was her own fault, that she should have had the sense to avoid getting into situations like that.” Irina said she spent at least two hours at the station. An acquaintance who had accompanied her was sent home after being told, “This is going to take a while.”
Irina returned home, but about two hours later, the police called and told her she needed to come back to add to her report and undergo a medical examination. According to Irina, the officers refused to let her wait until the next day and came to pick her up and take her to the station.
Mediazona reported that leaked data links the phone number used to call her to Nikita Severov. Phone directory apps list him as an investigator in the Admiralteysky District.
Irina alleges that one of the officers at the station began abusing her. He repeatedly made her strip down “to her socks,” grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the floor, jumped up and down on her, slammed her head “against whatever was there,” and “touched her all over while hitting her.” He threatened to “fuck” her, suggested they “sleep together,” forced her to her knees and moved her face toward his crotch, and said that “all girls like pain.” According to Irina, the officer said that “the Investigative Committee wouldn’t believe her, and neither would anyone else.”
At one point, Irina said, the man she accuses of rape was also brought to the station. He, too, was hit several times, and the officer said, “Two fuckheads couldn’t settle something, and now I’ve got to sit here all night dealing with it.” According to Irina, the officer demanded that they “reconcile,” after which the man she accuses of rape offered her money. She refused.
Other officers watched, including Nikita, whose surname Irina did not give in her post. “He said I was ruining the guy’s life and that he would kick me to death right there,” Irina told Mediazona.
She told the outlet that when she arrived at the station, she was told she would be speaking with the station chief. On Telegram, Irina wrote that the officer who abused her “didn’t introduce himself.”
According to Irina, the abuse lasted four to five hours. She published tracking data from the 2GIS app showing that she was at the police station from 12:42 a.m. to 5:45 a.m.
Afterward, Irina hurriedly left St. Petersburg and flew to Kamchatka, where her family lives. She published her first Telegram post about what had happened while she was already on her way. In Kamchatka, Irina sought medical attention and was diagnosed with a closed traumatic brain injury and bruising of the soft tissues of her head. She also reported the incident to the Investigative Committee’s office in Yelizovo, Kamchatka Krai. According to Irina, investigators there told her they would “send everything to St. Petersburg, since that’s where it happened.”
In another post on October 21, Irina indicated that before going to the police, she had told someone she had been in contact with for two years about the rape, and he “decided to take advantage of the situation and started trying to extort money from that guy.” Irina maintains that she stopped the extortion attempts, but the police learned about them. (Her post indicates that the officers examined the messages on her phone, including those she sent after her first visit to the station.) According to Irina, the police deleted the messages in which she tried to dissuade her acquaintance from extorting money, but an archived copy of the conversation survived. When she told this person that she had been beaten because of his extortion, Irina said, he cut off contact with her.
As of publication, no official inquiry into St. Petersburg’s Police Station No. 14 had been announced. Journalists from the news outlet Bumaga reached the station chief by phone. He said the Investigative Committee was looking into what had happened overnight on October 10–11. The station chief categorically denied any involvement in the abuse of Irina. Investigative Committee officials in Yelizovo told Irina that the committee’s St. Petersburg office had taken an interest in the case and that she had been summoned for an interview.
In comments to Mediazona, the Team Against Torture, which helps victims of police violence, described the abuse Irina reported as “the height of cruelty.” “We can’t remember the last time we saw violence this severe in St. Petersburg or elsewhere in Russia,” the human rights advocates said.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Three-way talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine could resume in November. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this, following statements from the Kremlin that it was ready for such talks.
“We’ve received feedback that Russia supports a three-way meeting between our teams. The American side is proposing that we hold it as soon as possible. We support that,” he said late on October 21.
Zelensky gave no specific dates for the possible meetings, saying only that the United States was “doing everything possible” to arrange them sooner. “I think no later than early November,” he said.
Zelensky said that, alongside ending the war and bringing peace closer, the negotiators’ main task would be to prepare for a meeting between the leaders. He said Kyiv would support any ceasefire — full or partial — at the talks.
Yesterday afternoon, after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said talks could begin in mid-November. Russia, he said, was ready to resume negotiations “on the main issue,” which “concerns establishing a security framework for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.” Ushakov said the talks could begin in mid-November, immediately after the U.S. congressional midterm elections.
Ushakov said, however, that the “new approaches” Witkoff presented to Putin, which had been announced ahead of the meeting, contained “not all that much that was useful for resolving the Ukrainian crisis.” But when later asked whether the war was nearing an end, he suggested that “things are heading that way.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that the talks could take place in Abu Dhabi. Asked whether Russia would prepare any documents for signing at the meeting, Peskov said: “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Don’t do that.”
Witkoff flew from St. Petersburg to Oslo, where he briefed allies on his conversation with Putin. He then wrote on social media that three-way talks would “continue at the technical level.”
Commenting on Witkoff’s visits to Oslo and St. Petersburg, U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed an end to the war was now “perhaps closer than ever.” He said he had spoken to Putin about it himself “the other day.”
Despite both sides’ statements that they were willing to negotiate, they continued exchanging strikes overnight. Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles, killing one person and injuring more than 20 in Kyiv. Zelensky said the attack showed there had been no “real changes in [Russia’s] attitude toward everything that is happening.”
Ukraine, in turn, launched drone strikes on several Russian regions, including Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region. Two people were injured in the Novaya Moskva district.
The war in photographs: The aftermath of an overnight Russian strike on Kyiv
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Three-way talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine could resume in November. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this, following statements from the Kremlin that it was ready for such talks.
“We’ve received feedback that Russia supports a three-way meeting between our teams. The American side is proposing that we hold it as soon as possible. We support that,” he said late on October 21.
Zelensky gave no specific dates for the possible meetings, saying only that the United States was “doing everything possible” to arrange them sooner. “I think no later than early November,” he said.
Zelensky said that, alongside ending the war and bringing peace closer, the negotiators’ main task would be to prepare for a meeting between the leaders. He said Kyiv would support any ceasefire — full or partial — at the talks.
Yesterday afternoon, after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said talks could begin in mid-November. Russia, he said, was ready to resume negotiations “on the main issue,” which “concerns establishing a security framework for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.” Ushakov said the talks could begin in mid-November, immediately after the U.S. congressional midterm elections.
Ushakov said, however, that the “new approaches” Witkoff presented to Putin, which had been announced ahead of the meeting, contained “not all that much that was useful for resolving the Ukrainian crisis.” But when later asked whether the war was nearing an end, he suggested that “things are heading that way.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that the talks could take place in Abu Dhabi. Asked whether Russia would prepare any documents for signing at the meeting, Peskov said: “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Don’t do that.”
Witkoff flew from St. Petersburg to Oslo, where he briefed allies on his conversation with Putin. He then wrote on social media that three-way talks would “continue at the technical level.”
Commenting on Witkoff’s visits to Oslo and St. Petersburg, U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed an end to the war was now “perhaps closer than ever.” He said he had spoken to Putin about it himself “the other day.”
Despite both sides’ statements that they were willing to negotiate, they continued exchanging strikes overnight. Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles, killing one person and injuring more than 20 in Kyiv. Zelensky said the attack showed there had been no “real changes in [Russia’s] attitude toward everything that is happening.”
Ukraine, in turn, launched drone strikes on several Russian regions, including Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region. Two people were injured in the Novaya Moskva district.
The war in photographs: The aftermath of an overnight Russian strike on Kyiv
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Rosneft officials are concerned that even a few more months of the war in Ukraine could cause lasting damage to the company’s business, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The company’s finances are deteriorating as profits fall and debt rises, Bloomberg’s sources said, despite expectations that the war in the Middle East would boost its earnings.
Rosneft has suffered significant damage from Ukrainian strikes on its oil refineries. The company operates 12 refineries that account for about a third of Russia’s total refining capacity. According to Bloomberg’s tally, five of the 15 confirmed drone strikes on Russian refineries in September alone targeted Rosneft facilities that supply fuel to European Russia.
The Ryazan refinery, which has repeatedly come under attack, is among the hardest hit. The Syzran refinery has spent most of the past six months either shut down completely or operating at less than a third of capacity. The Tuapse refinery has been shut down since April.
Bloomberg reported that Rosneft managed to restart some refineries within weeks of an attack, only for them to be struck again once repairs were complete or nearly complete. The constant need for repairs is driving costs to levels that cannot be sustained in the long run, the outlet’s sources said. As a result, they said, some plants have deliberately slowed repairs, stretching work that would normally take a few days into weeks.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
Rosneft officials are concerned that even a few more months of the war in Ukraine could cause lasting damage to the company’s business, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The company’s finances are deteriorating as profits fall and debt rises, Bloomberg’s sources said, despite expectations that the war in the Middle East would boost its earnings.
Rosneft has suffered significant damage from Ukrainian strikes on its oil refineries. The company operates 12 refineries that account for about a third of Russia’s total refining capacity. According to Bloomberg’s tally, five of the 15 confirmed drone strikes on Russian refineries in September alone targeted Rosneft facilities that supply fuel to European Russia.
The Ryazan refinery, which has repeatedly come under attack, is among the hardest hit. The Syzran refinery has spent most of the past six months either shut down completely or operating at less than a third of capacity. The Tuapse refinery has been shut down since April.
Bloomberg reported that Rosneft managed to restart some refineries within weeks of an attack, only for them to be struck again once repairs were complete or nearly complete. The constant need for repairs is driving costs to levels that cannot be sustained in the long run, the outlet’s sources said. As a result, they said, some plants have deliberately slowed repairs, stretching work that would normally take a few days into weeks.
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