MOSCOW: US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday about Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as US 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 US, 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 visit came a day after Witkoff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some European leaders in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.
Witkoff's meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring new momentum to US-led peace efforts, more than 4 ½ years after Russia's army invaded. 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.”
Witkoff sees some degree of momentum' in peace efforts
Witkoff 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 would join the discussion via a video link.
Witkoff said he would inform Putin about Tuesday's talks 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 US lawmakers, adding that it would help reduce prices for US farmers and truckers.
Putin said he was ready to discuss prospects for the restoration of US-Russian economic ties, adding that he is also prepared to discuss the US-led conflict with Iran. Moscow is ready to use its special relationship with Tehran to help bring peace, he said.
Putin was also due to meet Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who was in St Petersburg meeting with other Russian top officials, the Kremlin said.
Russia has cultivated its ties with China, and the two countries last month vetoed a US proposal for UN experts to keep monitoring sanctions on Iran.
Norway's prime minister sees a possible new phase' in talks
Witkoff planned to return to Oslo for more consultations after his trip to Russia, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said.
“I think we may have entered a phase now where the Russians are also looking for opportunities for diplomacy,” Støre told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday morning.
Zelenskyy was still in Oslo on Wednesday, where he was visiting the country's Parliament and meeting lawmakers.
Witkoff appeared to be making another attempt at overcoming hurdles that have kept a deal out of reach.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that on the agenda were future security guarantees for Ukraine, the fate of occupied territories, postwar reconstruction, and the possibility of a ceasefire.
Trump said Oct. 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a ceasefire in attacks on energy infrastructure but Russia has kept hammering Ukraine's power grid and Kyiv has hit Russian oil refineries.
Ukrainian strikes set an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St. Petersburg on Sunday as Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war.
Trump presses Zelenskyy to compromise
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is willing to listen to new US proposals about Ukraine but he doesn't expect any “miracle” from Washington.
At the White House on Tuesday, Trump increased the pressure on Zelenskyy to come to an agreement with Russia as relations between the two men have soured again.
“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We've given a lot to Ukraine. We've gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”
If that doesn't happen, “I think it's going to be a very bad thing,” Trump said.
Amid fears that Washington was turning its back on Ukraine, Zelenskyy said Kyiv is once again receiving early warnings from its partners about incoming Russian missiles, after recent strikes that he said occurred without enough notice from allies.
The change happened after Zelenskyy spoke with his American counterparts, including a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Russian attacks kill 5 people and injure 25 others, Ukraine says
Overnight Russian attacks in Kyiv left three people dead and 12 injured, while 10 residential buildings were damaged, the city's military administration said.
Energy facilities were targeted in Kyiv and three other cities in Russian attacks early Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said. Outside the eastern city of Kharkiv, two people died and 11 were wounded when drones exploded in a residential area, he said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces overnight struck a warehouse, an electrical substation and a bulk carrier at sea that was headed to the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported Wednesday that its air defences overnight intercepted 373 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.