US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia on Wednesday after meeting in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and leaders of Norway and Finland, while President Donald Trump said it was time for Kyiv to end the war with Moscow.
Zelenskiy travelled to Oslo in a bid to repair relations with Washington, which have sunk to new lows as Trump has courted Moscow. Kyiv has complained that Washington has withheld vital military support and intelligence.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zelenskiy spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was again receiving early warnings of Russian missile attacks.
“Now it works, it’s great,” he said, adding he and Rubio had also discussed supplies of Patriot missile interceptors and the US-provided satellite-based Starlink system, which Kyiv complained had stopped working when mounted on fast-moving objects such as drones.
Trump’s recent gestures toward Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and waiving new sanctions, have sparked bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and worry in European capitals.
Zelenskiy said he expected to talk to Rubio again in 48 hours.
He said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine in Oslo, including “Article 5-like” guarantees, referring to the NATO stipulation that an attack on one ally is an attack on all.
“I am thankful to the American side that they underlined again that it will be strong,” he said.
“There are different kinds of security guarantees which are in the paper, in the document, which Steve (Witkoff) will share with the Russians,” he said. “And we will hear his feedback one day after.”
Zelenskiy reiterated that Ukraine hoped to discuss key issues on how to end the war during a trilateral meeting of leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the US.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the Oslo meeting had been good and constructive.
“Steve Witkoff will fly tomorrow to Saint 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,” Stoere said.
“I think the (peace) process is back on track,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb told the news conference, in which Witkoff did not take part.
Earlier the US envoy and Zelenskiy clasped one another in a hug as they went into the talks that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joined remotely.
Washington has denied deliberately hindering Ukraine’s war effort. But Trump, who has waived sanctions on Russia in what he says is an effort to lower US fuel prices, has repeatedly rebuked Zelenskiy, and called for him to be replaced.
On Tuesday, Trump called on Ukraine to make a deal to settle the war with Russia, and said Moscow wanted to get it done. “Ukraine has to want to settle this war,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump suggested Moscow had the upper hand in the fight because “Russia is a big machine — they just keep grinding forward, and that’s what they’ve done. They’ve taken a very large piece of land.”
On Monday, Trump said Zelenskiy, who has rejected Russia’s conditions for ending its war, was “not helping matters much”, and that Kyiv should find “somebody else to negotiate”.
RUBIO SAYS US MISSILES MAY NOT HAVE BEEN DELIVERED YET
The US under Trump has largely stopped providing weapons directly to Ukraine but lets European countries buy US weaponry on Kyiv’s behalf under the so-called Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL). It has also provided intelligence and technology that Europe cannot match.
A source familiar with the matter said most weapons deliveries under PURL continued to flow, but US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not approved Ukraine’s latest requests for Patriot interceptors.
Rubio acknowledged on Tuesday that a consignment of interceptors bought by European countries for Ukraine may not have been delivered, but denied that the US had changed policy.
“There has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine,” he said on a visit to India.
The Kremlin said it was hoping to set up a meeting between Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As US ties with Ukraine have deteriorated, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian cities, particularly targeting power stations and fuel, despite a call from Trump for both sides to spare each other’s energy systems.
Russia bombarded cities in western Ukraine overnight, targeting electricity systems and knocking out power across swathes of the country that had previously been spared.
Ukraine held back for several days last week from hitting Russian oil refineries in deference to Trump’s request, but has resumed strikes after Russia showed no sign of complying. Both sides have also struck data centres.
Trump has repeatedly condemned Ukrainian attacks on Russia while saying little about Russia’s far more severe attacks on Ukraine, which have grown even more deadly as Kyiv says US support has been withheld for its air defences.
RUSSIAN ATTACKS
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday it struck three cargo vessels in Ukraine’s port of Reni and two other cargo vessels en route to Odesa. Russian forces also hit two logistics hubs, it said.
Energy facilities were attacked in seven Ukrainian regions overnight, knocking out power, and the western Lviv region was struck again during the day. Russian drones also struck an energy facility in Kyiv on Tuesday, mayor Vitali Klitschko said, with authorities saying power was out in four districts.
The deterioration of US-Ukraine relations began 10 days ago when Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel in a deal agreed with Putin. Trump said this would help reduce high fuel prices that have upset US voters ahead of midterm legislative elections on November 3.
At the weekend, Trump issued a broad waiver for tougher sanctions on Russia that were meant to have begun this week.