Witkoff meets Putin as Ukraine presses for role in peace talks

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv warned against any settlement negotiated without it.

At the start of the meeting, Witkoff said he hoped to resume trilateral talks among the United States, Russia and Ukraine so their teams could work on the next steps toward a settlement. Putin thanked President Donald Trump and Witkoff for their efforts, Al Jazeera reported. Witkoff had met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European officials in Oslo the day before.

The Kremlin gave no indication that its demands had changed. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would study proposals Witkoff brought but that talks would take a long time, according to CBS News. Russian officials said progress was “theoretically possible” if Ukraine’s leaders made “necessary decisions”; otherwise, the country’s situation “will be worse,” CBS News reported, citing Russian state media.

Zelenskyy told Fox News on Wednesday that talks involving himself, Trump and Putin offered the best route to resolving the conflict. He rejected the possibility of a deal shaped by the United States, Russia and China without Ukraine: “Don’t talk about us without us.” Any negotiated end to the war would also need approval from Ukraine’s parliament, he said.

Russian officials raised the possibility of a meeting involving Trump, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to CBS News. Al Jazeera reported that Putin said he wanted to discuss a potential meeting with Trump in China next month, which the Kremlin has suggested could include Xi.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Witkoff’s Tuesday talks with Zelenskyy “positive” and said the envoy would bring ideas from that meeting to Russia in an effort to “make some progress.” Witkoff described the Oslo discussions as productive, with “some degree of momentum,” Al Jazeera reported. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for further consultations with European officials after his Russia visit.

The talks also brought confirmation that Stephen Hubbard, an American held in Russia, had been released. CBS News reported that Hubbard had been jailed for more than four years. Trump said Putin agreed to free him with “no ‘swap’ necessary,” but said the release would not have happened if the United States had not prevented new sanctions against Moscow from taking effect last week.

After the Oslo meeting, Zelenskyy said U.S. intelligence warnings about imminent Russian strikes had been restored. “We are thankful that intelligence works,” he said, calling the warnings “very, very important” for civilians. He told Fox News that Ukraine’s access to Starshield satellite data remained “limited” but that Rubio was working to restore full access.

The war continued alongside the diplomacy. A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded two in Russia’s Bryansk region, its governor said, according to Al Jazeera. Ukraine’s emergency service said a Russian attack on a high-rise building in Kyiv killed two people, the outlet reported.