Three-way meeting in New York did not take place: Kyiv and Moscow denied reports of September 24 talks

On September 24, 2026, information about a possible three-way meeting of delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States in New York was not confirmed. The Office of the President of Ukraine officially denied media reports of the holding of negotiations, while Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev stated that reports of upcoming talks in New York were a "fake." According to presidential advisor Dmytro Lytvyn, the Ukrainian delegation is already on its way home.

Kyiv's position: the delegation is already on its way

Dmytro Lytvyn, advisor to the President of Ukraine, commenting to journalists on reports of a three-way meeting, stated that the Office of the President does not confirm media reports about a September 24 meeting of Ukrainian, Russian, and American delegations in New York. According to him, the Ukrainian delegation is already on its way home. Thus, Kyiv has effectively closed the question of holding any format of negotiations involving the Russian side within the current trip to the United States.

Moscow's reaction: "the reports were a fake"

From the Russian side, a similar denial came from Kirill Dmitriev, special representative of Vladimir Putin. He stated that there would be no three-way Russia–US–Ukraine meetings in New York and, in his words, "cynically added" that reports in Ukrainian media about upcoming talks in New York were a fake. Notably, on September 23, Dmitriev did indeed travel to the United States, where, according to RBC-Ukraine, he planned to meet with representatives of Donald Trump's administration — Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and others.

What the media reported before the denial

Earlier, Ukrainian and international outlets, citing a source in diplomatic circles, reported that on September 24 a three-way meeting on the so-called "energy truce" between Ukraine and Russia could take place in the United States. According to these sources, Ukraine could be represented by the head of the President's Office Kirill Budanov and the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov, the United States by President Donald Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and Russia by special envoy Kirill Dmitriev. The "energy truce" format involved discussing issues related to the infrastructural and energy aspects of the conflict.

Contradictory data

Open sources show a significant discrepancy in the interpretation of events on September 23–24. On the one hand, the Office of the President of Ukraine and Kirill Dmitriev directly deny the fact of a three-way meeting taking place, while the Ukrainian side states that the delegation is already leaving New York. On the other hand, a number of outlets, in particular the ircity.ru portal, publish materials with headlines suggesting that the "meeting on Ukraine in the US" did indeed take place and "concluded" — although without reaching specific agreements. In addition, the kp.ru outlet earlier reported that Russia, the US, and Ukraine were "preparing to begin three-way negotiations," creating the impression of preparation for a format that both sides publicly denied on September 24. Thus, it remains unclear whether bilateral contacts (for example, between Dmitriev and Witkoff and Kushner) took place in New York in the absence of the Ukrainian delegation, or whether the Russian negotiator's trip was canceled or scaled back before it began.

Context: previous rounds of negotiations

The last meeting dedicated to the issues of ending Russia's war against Ukraine took place in February 2026. Since then, despite statements from the Russian side about its intention to resume three-way negotiations with US participation, no visible progress in this direction has been recorded. On September 8, 2026, Vladimir Zelenskyy, in an interview with a newspaper, revealed where, in his opinion, negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, and the US could take place, noting the presence of "invitations" from a number of countries. However, by September 24, none of the announced formats had been realized, once again confirming the high degree of instability of the negotiation process and its dependence on the political will of the parties at a given moment.