Ukraine war: US envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Russia for talks

In efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, US negotiator Steve Witkoff travels on to Russia after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and European leaders in Oslo.

"Steve Witkoff will fly to Saint Petersburg tomorrow to hold talks with the Russian leadership," Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who hosted the talks with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Norway, said in the evening. According to Støre, “the proposals that European and American colleagues have developed” will be presented.

At the talks in Oslo, the parties discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, territorial issues, sanctions and European security after the war. In addition to US negotiator Jared Kushner, representatives of several European countries, including Germany, the EU and NATO, were also involved in the meeting. “We are ready for negotiations,” Zelensky said. We do not lose the war, but we lose human lives. And because Russia is attacking, we are losing human lives and time.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, once again called on Ukraine to agree to a settlement agreement with Russia. “Ukraine must want to end this war,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. Russia is at an advantage because the country is advancing inexorably like “a big machine” and has already taken “a very large piece of land,” Trump said. He verbally attacked Zelensky again, complaining that he was “no real help” in the peace efforts.

The tone between the US and Ukraine had intensified in public recently. In recent days, Trump had agreed among other things diesel purchases in Russia. At the same time, important military aid to Ukraine stalled. Kyiv also recently complained of several missing warnings before the launch of ballistic missiles and problems with the satellite Internet service Starlink. The early warning systems were now working again, Zelensky said. “We are grateful to the American side for that.” He was also optimistic about Starlink after the talks.

Witkoff’s appointment in Russia could now “possibly pave the way for a meeting at the highest political level” – between Ukraine, Russia and the US, said Norway’s head of government Støre. Earlier, Trump had brought the option of a tripartite meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and China’s head of state Xi Jinping into play. Zelensky stressed in Oslo that Ukraine must sit at the table in negotiations on the future of his country.

Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes on Ukraine continued with great severity, killing at least nine civilians on Tuesday.