Witkoff heads to Russia after Oslo talks with Zelensky

US envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia on Wednesday to brief its leadership on his talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo, as President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to make a deal to end the war.

“Ukraine has to want to settle this war,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Dawn reported, citing AFP. He suggested Moscow had the upper hand: “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.”

The Oslo talks

Witkoff and Zelensky embraced as they went into the talks in the Norwegian capital, which Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joined remotely.

• Security guarantees: Zelensky said they discussed “Article 5-like” guarantees for Ukraine, referring to Nato’s clause 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
• The document: “There are different kinds of security guarantees which are in the paper, in the document, which Steve (Witkoff) will share with the Russians. And we will hear his feedback one day after,” Zelensky said
• Next step: Ukraine hopes key issues can be settled in a three-way meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the US

“Steve Witkoff will fly tomorrow to Saint Petersburg where he will be meeting the 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,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said, calling the meeting good and constructive.

“I think the (peace) process is back on track,” said Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Repairing ties with Washington

Zelensky travelled to Oslo to repair relations with Washington, which have sunk to new lows as Trump has courted Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and the waiving of new sanctions. Those moves have drawn bipartisan pushback in Congress and worry in Europe.

Zelensky said Ukraine was again receiving early warnings of Russian missile attacks, after complaining that Washington had stopped sharing intelligence on Russian air strikes. “Now it works, it’s great,” he said. He and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also discussed Patriot interceptors and the Starlink system, which Kyiv said had not worked on fast-moving objects such as drones. He expects to speak to Rubio again within 48 hours.

Weapons still a question

The US has largely stopped supplying weapons directly to Ukraine, but lets European countries buy American arms for Kyiv under the “prioritised Ukraine requirements list” (PURL). A source said most PURL deliveries continued, but US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had not approved Ukraine’s latest requests for Patriot interceptors.

Why it matters

Washington, Kyiv and Europe now have a shared document on security guarantees. Whether Moscow accepts security guarantees for Ukraine will decide if a leaders’ summit, and a path to ending the war, is within reach. Read our report on Zelensky’s trip to Norway.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn, AFP and Geo News.