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Putin turns a half-hour call with European leaders into a 90-minute history lecture. Trump says a three-way summit could happen ‘very soon.’

Source: Meduza

Trump hopes a trilateral meeting with Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky will happen soon. The U.S. president told reporters such a meeting could take place “very soon” and said he expects the summit to achieve “a lot of progress.” He did not say where or when the talks might occur.

Plans for a trilateral meeting of U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian delegations have become clearer. Ukrainian President Zelensky said that after a call between Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre with Vladimir Putin, “there is a sense that the Russians are serious about meeting in Abu Dhabi.”

Zelensky said the talks in Abu Dhabi are expected to address “de-escalation steps in the energy sector and at sea, as well as the exchange and return home of prisoners.” He added that there is also hope “to discuss the format in which a trilateral meeting at the leaders’ level could take place.”

During the call, Putin lectured the Finnish president and the Norwegian prime minister on the history of the Slavs. As a result, the call stretched to nearly an hour and a half instead of the planned half hour, Financial Times sources said. The Kremlin’s press service, commenting on the call, said “Putin assessed the current situation in the conflict zone in Ukraine, recalling its root causes.” The FT reported that an immediate ceasefire was not discussed during the call.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized Stubb and Støre for the call with Putin. She said the initiative had not been coordinated with the rest of the EU countries. The Finnish president responded by saying that he and Støre “held the conversation in our capacity as leaders of our respective countries, not as representatives of Europe.” The European Union is trying to choose who will represent it in talks with Russia. Stubb has been named as one of the most likely candidates, with his good relationship with Donald Trump cited as one of the factors.

EU representatives also plan to take part in the talks in Abu Dhabi. According to Euronews, the delegation will be led by Björn Seibert, head of the Cabinet of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. A meeting in this format — with representatives from the U.S., Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union — would be the first since the start of the full-scale war, the broadcaster said.

The war in photographs

Russian forces struck Kharkiv overnight on October 28, and a drone attack set an apartment building on fire in the city’s Osnovianskyi district. The attack killed a 60-year-old man and injured four people, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. It also set fire to a private home, an industrial building, and several outbuildings.