Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff could “pave the way for a meeting at leaders’ level” during talks with Vladimir Putin, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said at a news conference in Oslo.
“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.
Politico reported, without quoting Støre directly, that Witkoff would offer Putin direct talks with Trump and Zelensky.
Zelensky said after meeting Witkoff in Oslo that “one of the important ideas is to move to a potential trilateral meeting of the leaders 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,” Zelensky added.
When reporters asked Trump whether Putin and Zelensky needed to “be in the same room” to reach a peace agreement, he said: “I mean, [it] depends. They don’t have to be in the same room. I guess I can do it another way. It’s hard for them to be in the same room. I don’t care how it’s done.”
Russia–Ukraine peace talks
- U.S. pushes to revive Ukraine–Russia talks after Witkoff and Kushner meet Zelensky in Kyiv
- Europe is preparing for direct talks with Putin, FT reports. One possible proposal: Russia gets Donbas, Ukraine gets NATO membership.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.