# Moscow Talks on Ukraine Yield New Meeting and Prisoner‑Swap Hints as Kremlin Repeats Withdrawal Demands

*Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 6:06 PM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-11-12T18:06:39.321Z (55m ago)
**Category**: geopolitics | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 9/10
**Sources**: https://t.me/KurdishFrontNews/34005 | https://t.me/KurdishFrontNews/34003 | https://t.me/KurdishFrontNews/34002 | https://t.me/BossBotOfficial/21674 | https://t.me/BossBotOfficial/21673
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/23273.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: After talks in Moscow, American envoy Steve Witkoff says Russia, the United States and Ukraine agreed to another round of negotiations with European participation, even as Russian officials and media reports stress that Vladimir Putin is still demanding Ukrainian troop withdrawals from Kyiv‑held parts of Donbas.

A round of Ukraine talks in Moscow has produced a promise of further negotiations and hints of a large prisoner swap, while Russian officials and media reports say Vladimir Putin still expects Ukrainian forces to leave areas of Donbas that Kyiv controls.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described Putin’s meeting with American businessman Steve Witkoff and former White House adviser Jared Kushner as substantive and useful, and said Russia and the United States agreed to continue trilateral discussions that include Ukraine. Witkoff told Russian media that another round of trilateral negotiations had been agreed and that European representatives would join. Kushner called the encounter intensive and said he believed it would influence the upcoming talks.

At the same time, Russian readouts and media reports cited by Russian channels say Putin made no concessions and continues to demand that Ukrainian troops withdraw from Kyiv‑held parts of Donbas, which Moscow claims as its own following staged referendums and annexation decrees. Ushakov accused European states of contradictory behavior, saying they speak about peace while, in negotiations in Abu Dhabi, making statements about readiness to deploy a military contingent to Ukraine. According to his account, that approach drives the conflict toward continuation and expansion.

For people in Ukrainian‑held parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, such withdrawal demands point directly to who provides security and basic governance. Pulling units back from these districts would leave residents facing rule from occupying authorities whose policies they have watched unfold elsewhere in seized territory.

The Moscow meetings are being cast as part of a process that also includes earlier talks in Abu Dhabi, where Russian, Ukrainian and Western representatives have tested options for a ceasefire or broader political terms while fighting continues at the front. The Kremlin links these discussions to its wider push for a new European security framework and often refers back to proposals it made in 2021.

Ushakov said Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to keep discussing Ukraine on the sidelines of a coming summit of Asia‑Pacific leaders in China. He also said Russia and Ukraine are working on what he called the largest prisoner exchange of the war so far.

Russian criticism of European positions serves several purposes at once: pressuring governments against any deployment of foreign troops to Ukraine, framing Western capitals as obstacles to peace and signaling to Kyiv that its future is being debated in formats where it is not always at the table.

The direction of this diplomatic track will become clearer if European governments publicly confirm they will join the next round of talks described by Witkoff, if the planned meeting between Putin and Trump in China produces a defined framework for negotiations, and if a large prisoner exchange actually takes place as Ushakov suggests.