Ongoing US diplomatic efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war have driven recent trader positioning in markets on a potential Trump-Putin meeting. In early November 2026, President Trump met privately with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House and publicly signaled progress toward a broad agreement that could extend beyond Ukraine to European security arrangements. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have held multiple rounds of talks with Putin and Ukrainian officials, culminating in trilateral working-level discussions hosted in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11 focused on postwar security frameworks. Russia has signaled willingness for further engagement, including at the APEC summit in Shenzhen scheduled for mid-November. These developments, alongside earlier envoy visits and prisoner releases, have shaped market assessments of near-term bilateral leader contact while highlighting persistent gaps between the parties on core terms.