Witkoff Lands in St Petersburg for Putin Talks After 'Constructive' Oslo Meeting With Zelenskiy

In the space of 24 hours, America's top negotiator has sat across from Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Oslo and landed in St Petersburg to face Vladimir Putin. Shuttle diplomacy is back — and for Britain, which has staked its credibility on standing by Ukraine whatever Washington does, the next few days matter enormously.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia's second city on Wednesday, two sources told Reuters, a day after what a US official described as "constructive" talks with the Ukrainian president in Norway. Tuesday's Oslo meeting brought Zelenskiy together with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and European and NATO representatives — a deliberate signal that Kyiv still has friends in the room.

According to the US official, who briefed on condition of anonymity, Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals, and the participants made "meaningful progress" toward a coordinated approach to engaging Moscow. On the table: security guarantees for Ukraine, a post-war economic plan, and a broader European security architecture. Witkoff's mission in St Petersburg, the official said, is to create a "pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations".

Rubio in Mumbai: 'nothing surprising' — and a row over Starlink

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday, called the Zelenskiy meeting "positive" and added that "nothing surprising came out" of it. "He will now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side, and let's see if we can make some progress," Rubio said.

Rubio also used the appearance to deny that Washington had any hand in slowing Ukraine's access to Starlink, the SpaceX satellite system Kyiv's forces depend on. "What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States, nor anyone in our system, ever requested that any changes to that system be made," he said, adding that it was governed by a "private commercial contract". That directly contradicted SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who said last week that the systems were owned and controlled by the US government and that any limits on speed or usage were decided by the US military or the president.

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Trump presses Kyiv to settle as Europe watches nervously

Zelenskiy's trip to Oslo was, by all accounts, a repair mission. Relations between Kyiv and Washington have sunk to new lows as Donald Trump has courted Moscow, and Ukraine has complained that vital American military support and intelligence were being withheld. Trump has said publicly it is time for Ukraine to end the war.

His recent gestures toward the Kremlin — a deal to buy Russian diesel and a waiver of new sanctions — have drawn bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and real anxiety in European capitals. Zelenskiy told a press conference after the Oslo talks that Ukraine was again receiving early warnings of Russian missile attacks — "Now it works, it's great" — and that he had discussed supplies of Patriot missile interceptors as well as Starlink with Rubio. He also said the talks touched on "Article 5-like" security guarantees, a reference to NATO's mutual-defence clause.

Strip away the communiqués and this is what today's shuttle run really is: Washington negotiating the contours of a settlement with Moscow, with Kyiv brought along to keep it credible. Europe — Britain included — is not at the table, only adjacent to it. That is the part Downing Street should lose sleep over. If Witkoff returns from St Petersburg with a framework that trades Ukrainian territory for a ceasefire, the question for London will be blunt: does Britain keep funding a war its closest ally has decided to end?

What happens next

The honest answer is that nobody knows — and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Witkoff's meeting with Putin is the first real test of whether the "new ideas" Zelenskiy brought to Oslo have any purchase in the Kremlin. If Putin engages, trilateral talks could follow within weeks. If he stonewalls, expect the White House to blame Kyiv and turn up the pressure.

For Britain, the playbook has not changed even if the weather has: keep the missiles flowing, keep the training running, and make sure that whatever Washington cooks up with Moscow does not get served to Kyiv as a done deal. That was the position Downing Street took when Zelenskiy visited earlier this month. The Witkoff–Putin meeting will show whether it still holds.