US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, a day after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway.
A US official told Axios that Witkoff will present Putin with an updated proposal to end the war in Ukraine, but the details of that proposal are unclear.
The talks in Oslo also included meetings with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and representatives from several other NATO countries. The official speaking to Axios said that Ukraine had “brought forward new ideas and proposals” and that “meaningful progress” was made, but again provided no details.
President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, participated in the talks virtually because he came down with the flu, and he will do the same in the talks between Witkoff and Putin.
Zelensky said that he discussed with Witkoff the idea of Ukraine receiving security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5, which outlines that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all. “I am thankful to the American side that they underlined again that it will be strong,” he said.
“There are different kinds of security guarantees which are in the paper, in the document, which Steve will share with the Russians. And we will hear his feedback one day after,” Zelensky added.
During previous negotiations, Zelensky and his Western backers insisted on deploying NATO troops to Ukraine as part of a peace deal, an idea Moscow had repeatedly rejected.
Also on Tuesday, Zelensky said that the US had restored intelligence sharing with Ukraine and that the early warning system for Russian ballistic missile attacks was now working well, though US officials denied the intelligence was ever purposely disrupted.
