Hopes of three-way peace meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky - as Steve Witkoff arrives in St Petersburg to meet Russian leader

Hopes for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv were renewed on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a three-way meeting with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. 

After a 'constructive' meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway, Zelensky said in a press conference that the pair had raised the possibility of holding a trilateral meeting to 'address the issues that only the leaders can do.' 

'Steve is going to Russia tomorrow, and let's see what Putin has to say,' the Ukrainian leader told reporters. 

The meeting between Zelensky and Witkoff was hosted by Norway and Finland in an effort to end Russia's war with Ukraine.  

A US official described the meeting between Zelensky and Witkoff as 'very productive and constructive,' adding that there was a 'strong alignment at the working level' among the US, Ukraine and Europe on the 'next steps.' 

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said 'genuine progress' was made on proposals to achieve peace but gave no further details. 

Witkoff has tried without success to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a settlement to end the war. 

He arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to meet with Russian leaders, exchange ideas from the Oslo meeting and share proposals from European and American colleagues. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is willing to listen to new US proposals about Ukraine but doesn't expect any 'miracle' from Washington.

Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said the Russian president will host Witkoff at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg in the first half of the day on Wednesday.  

Witkoff's meetings suggested leaders are keen to bring momentum to US-led peace efforts, more than four-and-a-half years after Russia's army invaded Ukraine. 

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.  

At the White House, President Donald Trump stepped up the pressure on Zelensky to come to an agreement with Russia as relations between the two men have soured again.

'We want Zelensky 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.'

Zelensky also said on Tuesday that Kyiv is once again receiving early warnings from its partners about incoming Russian missiles following recent strikes that he said occurred without notice. 

For at least a week,  the Ukrainian leader has said that his country has not received early warnings about ballistic missiles aimed at the capital. 

Such intelligence, he said, saves lives by allowing the public to be alerted and giving military units time to try to intercept the missiles.

Zelensky said the change happened after talks with his American counterparts, including a phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

'We are thankful that intelligence works now, and I'm speaking about early warning, which is very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic is coming,' Zelensky said on his visit to Norway. 

'So we are thankful to the American side now that it works.'  

The conversation with Rubio came after Zelensky told a bipartisan group of US lawmakers Monday that he believes 'some political decision has been made to slow down... support for us.'

Ukraine has nearly run out of American-made Patriot air-defence interceptors that it needs to stop Russian ballistic missiles, according to Zelensky, who has pleaded for Washington to send more. 

But he said the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that other countries have purchased for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader also said speed restrictions were still in place on his country’s use of Starshield, the military-grade version of US company SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink, hampering battlefield operations. 

Russia has continued to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine. 

Four people were killed and 27 others wounded, including children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Kyiv region over the past day, regional police said.

Three were killed, and six were wounded in the Obukhiv district, where warehouses were damaged, police said. 

In the Bucha district, one woman was killed and 21 people were wounded, eight of them children, while hundreds of buildings were damaged, according to police.

On Tuesday morning, three people were killed and four injured when two vehicles caught fire in a Russian attack on the Kyiv-Odesa highway, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. 

The dead included the driver of a shuttle bus that was hit. The bus transports people from Kyiv to the National Military Memorial Cemetery.

Two more people were killed in a Russian attack Tuesday on warehouses on the outskirts of Dnipro in central Ukraine, authorities said.

National grid operator Ukrenergo reported power outages in 12 regions of Ukraine following the Russian attacks.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement that its forces carried out drone strikes on logistics centres, port infrastructure and three cargo ships in the port of Reni in the Odesa region. It said that another bulk carrier was hit at sea on its way to Odesa.

Meanwhile, air defenses intercepted 136 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions overnight, the ministry said.