US special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday as part of new efforts toward a peace deal in Ukraine. Witkoff was greeted in St.
Petersburg by the Kremlin's adviser for international economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev. "I don't know whether any agreement will be reached today, but the talks on the conflict in Ukraine are, of course, the main focus of today's discussions," Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said, according to Russian news agency Interfax. The meeting comes a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as "positive." "He will now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side, and let's see if we can make some progress," he said.
Witkoff's meeting with Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Oslo has brought fresh momentum to peace efforts, more than 4 years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader remained in Oslo on Wednesday where met with lawmakers in the Norwegian parliament. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said that Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for further consultations after his trip to St.
"I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy," he told Norway's public broadcaster NRK on Wednesday morning. Nevertheless, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was willing to listen but that he didn't expect any "miracle." US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated that he wants Zelenskyy "to make a deal." Don't let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google by clicking here and hitting the "star" or "preferred" button, so you'll always see our verified news first.
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