Witkoff to Meet Russian Leadership After Oslo Talks; Security Guarantee Plan Heads to Moscow

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will fly to St. Petersburg on Wednesday to meet with Russia’s leadership, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced at a joint press conference in Oslo on Tuesday, following a day of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Støre said Witkoff would carry proposals developed during the Oslo meetings and by European and American officials, adding that the trip could “pave the way for a meeting at leaders’ level.” A second U.S. envoy, Jared Kushner, joined Tuesday’s talks by video from the United States. Norway said Kushner was unable to travel because he has the flu. Witkoff himself did not take part in the press conference; Støre said it was “a press conference among political leaders.”

“Steve Witkoff will fly tomorrow to St. Petersburg where he will be meeting with Russian leadership – and exchange ideas from this meeting and the proposals that have been worked on by European and American colleagues – and possibly pave the way for a meeting at leaders’ level,” Støre said in opening remarks published by his office.

Security guarantees and a proposed trilateral summit

Zelenskyy said the document discussed in Oslo includes options built on NATO’s Article 5 and “Article 5-like” commitments. “There are different kinds of security guarantees which are in the paper, yes, in the document, and which Steve will share with Russians,” he said, adding that Ukraine expects to hear Witkoff’s feedback a day later. “We need strong security guarantees after this war will end.”

He also said he had proposed a trilateral meeting of the American, Ukrainian and Russian leaders. Asked about a possible summit of the American, Chinese and Russian leaders, he said, “It’s up to them,” but that on Ukraine’s future, “it can be acceptable only when we are at the table of negotiations.”

Støre described the talks as “good and constructive,” saying the leaders discussed Ukraine’s security, a postwar prosperity plan, territory, sanctions and the European security order. National security advisers from the European Union, NATO, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy were to join the leaders at dinner, he said. Norway said Zelenskyy had asked for the meeting “at a critical time for Ukraine.”

A disputed weekend of intelligence and supplies

The talks followed a public dispute over U.S. military assistance. On Monday, Zelenskyy wrote on X that Ukraine had received no early warning from partners about a first wave of a Russian ballistic missile attack, and complained of delays in supplies and speed restrictions on Starlink and Starshield services at the front.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Monday, denied any pause in intelligence sharing. “I don’t know where he’s getting these things from or why he’s saying these things to the press,” Rubio said, according to the State Department, adding, “There has been no pause.” He said an early-warning software problem had been examined by U.S. European Command and that Starshield is controlled by the Department of War.

In Oslo on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said the situation had changed. “We are thankful to American side. Now it works. It’s great,” he said of U.S. early warning of Russian ballistic missile attacks, adding that he had also discussed Starlink and Patriot interceptor missiles with Rubio and expected “a good result.”

The talks came a day after a Russian drone strike on a park in Nova Vodolaha in the Kharkiv region. Zelenskyy said six people were killed, including children; the Kharkiv regional police reported two children and four adults killed and 15 injured, including seven children. According to a U.S. official cited by Axios, Witkoff’s Russia trip is also expected to include efforts to free Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher the United States says Russia has wrongfully detained. The White House has not publicly confirmed the St. Petersburg trip.

Reporting based on coverage by Radio Purple and Centreline.