Volodymyr Zelensky sought to draw a line under the escalating feud with the US after meeting with Donald Trump’s envoys in Oslo, while the US president kept up pressure on Kyiv.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky struck a more softened tone on relations with the US, saying he discussed intelligence sharing and access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet with special envoy Steve Witkoff. Mr Zelensky had earlier blamed the US for throttling the service, which Ukrainian troops use for defence.
“We’ve been very concrete, and the organisation was very positive,” the Ukrainian president said alongside leaders from Norway and Finland, who also attended the talks.
“We shared things which are, I mean, which we have to manage, and we will manage, I’m sure.”
Mr Zelensky said he hopes Ukraine’s connection to Starlink will be restored “maybe in 48 hours”, adding that the US was again sharing intelligence to provide early warning against Russian attacks.
And he said both sides were also still working on brokering an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia that Mr Trump has demanded.
Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joined the talks remotely.
Mr Trump hours later, however, continued to ratchet up his criticism of Mr Zelensky. He repeated his view that Russian president Vladimir Putin would like to get a deal done and again questioned Mr Zelensky’s will to end the war, now in its fifth year.
“We have given tremendous amounts to Ukraine. We’ve got nothing back, other than high diesel,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “Ukraine does not have a lot of people to draw from, and it’s time to make a deal.”
Putin has continued to carry out aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities, including on Tuesday.
The renewed attempt at talks follows a more than week-long row sparked by Mr Trump’s deal with Putin to allow Russia to sell some diesel into global markets as the US president seeks to lower surging petrol prices ahead of November 3 US mid-term elections.
The feud quickly escalated into mutual snipping, with Mr Trump suggesting Mr Zelensky should step aside as the president and Mr Zelensky accusing him of trying to push Ukraine into surrender.
The argument risked leaving Kyiv at its most vulnerable position as it stares down another frigid winter, with civilian casualties already surging from constant Russian attacks.
As the talks in Oslo went on, Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine with jet-powered drones, hitting energy facilities in Kyiv and cutting off power and water in some of the capital’s neighbourhoods.
A firefighter works at a site of an office building damaged during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine © Reuters
Mr Zelensky, in response to a reporter’s question, asserted that Ukraine “was not losing this war, but we are losing people”.
Mr Witkoff is set to fly to St Petersburg to meet Russian leadership on Wednesday after the Oslo meeting, which was aimed to get peace talks back on track, Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store told the news conference.
Mr Witkoff will meet with Putin, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“Steve is going to Russia tomorrow, and let’s see what Putin has to say,” Mr Zelensky told reporters.
He separately said that one aim is to plan for a trilateral meeting of the US, Ukrainian and Russian leaders “to address the issues that only the leaders can do”, including around territorial claims.
“We are ready not to hit sensitive parts of Russia’s energy sector if Russia stops hitting ours, but Putin said no,” Mr Zelensky said, citing a top recent US demand of Kyiv. “But we’re working to find a solution.”
Mr Store and Finnish president Alexander Stubb tried to put a positive spin on the talks, which followed a similar series of meetings between Ukraine and Mr Trump’s envoys that have so far failed to produce any substantial progress to end the war as Russia sticks to its maximalist demands.
Talks are advancing “quite well” on a technical level, with “key elements” found on security and the economy, Mr Stubb said, adding that discussions also broached near-term issues such as air defence, energy installations and partial ceasefires, including those on energy and food security.
“I feel that we are on the same page, and the next steps are about how do we get there,” Mr Stubb said. “We fully understand that there has been a lot of noise in the public space.”
The positions of Ukraine and Russia on how to end the war remain unchanged, with the two sides still far from reaching a deal. Among other demands, Putin wants Kyiv to withdraw its troops from the parts of the eastern Donetsk region that Ukraine still controls. Kyiv rejects that demand, instead proposing to halt the fighting along the current front line.
The US, acting as a mediator, has proposed establishing a neutral zone between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
“We’ll see what happens after tomorrow in St. Petersburg. It’s very important that the American negotiators stay, and President Trump stays, engaged,” Mr Stubb said. “Today was a good day for peace.”