US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St Petersburg on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following talks the previous day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo.
The Oslo discussions involved Zelensky, Witkoff, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and European representatives. A US official described the talks as constructive, while Stubb said there had been “genuine progress” on proposals for peace without providing details. BBC reporting
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Witkoff would share the results of the Oslo discussions with Putin. Jared Kushner, who joined the Oslo meeting remotely, was also expected to participate remotely in the talks with the Russian president, according to Al Jazeera.
The public reporting did not disclose the substance of the proposals. The BBC said Ukrainian and European participants considered it Russia’s turn to respond, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would listen to Witkoff’s proposals but ruled out political concessions. Putin had not publicly commented in the reporting.
Zelensky also said US intelligence sharing on Russian missile attacks “works now,” after Kyiv had accused Washington of withholding key information. That earlier allegation was rejected by US officials, and the reporting does not independently establish that intelligence-sharing arrangements had been restored.
The diplomacy is unfolding alongside continued attacks. The BBC reported deadly Russian strikes in Ukraine, while Al Jazeera reported Ukrainian and Russian officials’ accounts of attacks in Kyiv and Russia’s Bryansk region. The reports did not establish that the meetings had changed the conflict’s military activity.