Top Ukrainian official expresses “restrained optimism” about eventual Putin-Zelenskyy meeting ahead of trilateral talks

KYIV, Ukraine — Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, expressed “restrained optimism” there could be progress made toward an eventual meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin during trilateral negotiations next week

Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations will meet in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10 and 11 for the first trilateral talks since February and the first since a heated back-and-forth over SpaceX’s Starshield being throttled down. In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Budanov said the discussions would focus on postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and Russia. 

“There are absolutely different situations at different times,” Budanov said, referring to these trilateral discussions versus the ones in February. “Now, obviously, all parties wanted to hold this meeting. This means that there are certain prerequisites for this.”

“These negotiations are not the last,” he said.

Budanov, who led the country’s Defense Intelligence service before taking over Ukraine’s Presidential Office in January, will join the delegation led by Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to represent Washington. Russia’s delegation will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a Vladimir Putin aide who headed Moscow’s team in earlier rounds of negotiations.

“We look forward to building on the progress made in Kyiv, Oslo, and St. Petersburg toward a comprehensive, durable peace agreement that delivers lasting security for generations to come,” Witkoff said in announcing the talks earlier this week.

The meeting follows several weeks of strain in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. In October, President Trump announced a deal to allow Russia to supply diesel to the United States for the first time since 2022. Elon Musk’s SpaceX also imposed limits on Ukraine’s Starshield satellite networks, disrupting Ukrainian drone operations and some air-defense systems, before reinstating access weeks later.

Despite these developments, Budanov said he is optimistic about Ukraine’s relationship with the United States heading into the trilateral meeting next week.

“Look, it’s bad. It shouldn’t be like that,” Budanov said of the Starshield failures. “But along with that, we can remind you that this situation is resolved in one way or another. This gives optimism for the future.”

The trilateral meeting comes as Russia intensifies strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Strikes this week hit energy facilities in 10 regions, according to Ukraine’s energy ministry, left hundreds of thousands of households without electricity and cut water to much of Kyiv for more than 16 hours. 

Budanov, speaking from his office in the capital, said Russia was using the strikes to create political pressure on Kyiv.

Russia’s goal is “to cause the maximum damage to our critical infrastructure,” he said. “What they hope to do is to create a foundation for social dissatisfaction, for street protests, and to stifle the national interests. But this will not happen.”