Newzenvoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.Witkoff said in televised remarks at the start of the meeting that he hoped to discuss the resumption of the trilateral talks involving the U.S., Russia and Ukraine that would allow the technical teams to discuss the next steps toward a peace settlement.Putin thanked Trump and Witkoff for their efforts to end the war.The talks lasted about three hours, the Kremlin said.
None of the participants made any immediate comment afterward.The visit came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in Norway's capital, Oslo.Witkoff’s meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to U.S.-led peace efforts, more than 4½ years after Russia’s army launched an all-out invasion. Efforts by the Trump administration since early last year to end the war have made no significant progress, and there was no suggestion of an imminent breakthrough.Russia and Ukraine are still far apart in their terms for a settlement, as their armies remain locked on the battlefield and they pummel each other with daily long-range strikes.However, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said late Tuesday that the Oslo meeting, which he attended, “made genuine progress.”Zelenskyy said that freezing the conflict in Ukraine was the “minimum” required from Russia to bring about an end to the war.“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war,” Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Fox News.Witkoff sees ‘some degree of momentum’ in peace effortsWitkoff and Putin met at St. Petersburg’s Constantine Palace, with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, also at the table.
Witkoff said Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to join the discussion via a video link.Before the talks, Witkoff said that he would inform Putin about Tuesday’s meeting in Oslo, which he described as “productive,” adding that “there is some degree of momentum.”He thanked Putin for lifting Russia’s ban on diesel exports, which angered some U.S. lawmakers, adding that it would help reduce prices for U.S. farmers and truckers.Putin said that he…
Volodymyr Zelensky said halting the fighting was crucial to advancing diplomacy and reaching a deal with security guarantees. (EPA Images pic)WASHINGTON: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped for a positive outcome from US envoy Steve Witkoff's meeting in Russia on Wednesday and that he supports talks between the leaders of Kyiv, Washington and Moscow.Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News that his talks with Witkoff in Oslo a day earlier were productive and that Ukraine was ready for diplomacy. He thanked the US for restoring intelligence sharing and said he hoped the limitations on Starlink and Starshield satellite services would end soon."I hope that ...
in – I don't know, some hours – we will have some result, God bless, positive," he said of Witkoff's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Zelensky said it was important to have a freeze in the fighting and move to diplomacy and toward an agreement that includes security guarantees, praising Trump's call for ceasefires."It's important to negotiate trilaterally" with him, US President Donald Trump and Putin, Zelensky told Fox's "Fox & Friends" programme, adding that it would be better if European countries could also be included."I always said that we are open to negotiation in any format, any topic. I just ask, but don't speak about us without us, please," he added.Zelensky also said he spoke with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who promised to work to address the issues regarding SpaceX's Starshield, which is essentially a military-grade version of Starlink developed for the Pentagon."It's still limited," Zelensky told Fox News of the service, a day after the Wall Street Journal reported company CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk had ordered the slowdown of the technology, which Ukraine relies on to defend itself against missile attacks from Russia.Rubio earlier on Wednesday told reporters decisions regarding Ukraine's access to Starlink were up to SpaceX and Elon Musk, not the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes US president's special envoy Steve Witkoff before a meeting at the Constantine Palace in St Petersburg.
(EPA Images pic)SAINT PETERSBURG: Russia's Vladimir Putin began talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff on ending the Ukraine war in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, with the American official saying he had brought "ideas" for a possible peace deal.Witkoff travelled to Russia from Norway, where he met Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky in talks Washington described as "positive".The meeting is taking place as the United States pushes an end to Europe's worst conflict since World War II, with Russia pounding Ukrainian cities ahead of winter and amid a bitter feud between Donald Trump and Zelensky.As Witkoff touched down in Putin's home city, Russia announced it would soon begin shipments of diesel to the United States under a deal with Trump and that it had freed a US citizen – Stephen Hubbard – held by Moscow since the start of the war on allegations of fighting as a "mercenary" for Ukraine."We've brought some papers. It's really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you'll read that at your leisure," Witkoff – Trump's business partner and envoy – told Putin in Saint Petersburg's Konstantinovsky Palace.Putin thanked Trump for his efforts to resolve the war and said he was eager to be informed about the US meeting with Zelensky.The long-time Russian leader has repeatedly refused to hold face-to-face talks with Zelensky and said that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine.Witkoff told Putin he hoped trilateral talks can resume."I'm hoping that you might consider that as a next step in the peace process so we can begin to have technical teams discussing what those next steps are," he told the Russian leader.Putin thanked Trump for his "attention" to the conflict and said the US leader had "insisted that it was necessary to end this conflict" in their last phone call.Russia's war against Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides as well as thousands of civilians.As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Kyiv said Moscow's strikes killed at least four people – including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region.'Momentum' in talksMeeting Putin, Witkoff described his talks with Zelensky as "productive"."I think there's some degree of momentum… Saint Petersburg – Washington’s envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Saint Petersburg and meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday following what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “positive” talks with Ukraine’s leader.
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