Witkoff Meets Putin as US Pushes for Ukraine Peace Talks
Qwenews.com – US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday as Washington sought to move discussions on ending the war in Ukraine toward direct negotiations.
The meeting followed Witkoff’s talks a day earlier with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo. The US envoy said the results of that meeting would be part of his conversation with Putin, describing the Oslo discussions as productive.
“I think there’s some degree of momentum, and I hope that this today can be another step forward in the peace process and discussing how we resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” Witkoff said.
Witkoff also urged Putin to consider restarting three-way discussions involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine. Such talks could allow officials to address technical questions that would be difficult to settle through public statements or separate bilateral meetings.
Putin raised the prospect of restoring economic cooperation between Russia and the United States. He also expressed interest in a possible meeting involving China to discuss Ukraine, broadening the range of issues considered during the talks.
American Prisoner Expected to Be Released
One immediate development from the meeting was Witkoff’s announcement that Russia would release Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American who has been detained in the country for more than four years.
Putin, Witkoff and their interpreters met around a large round table, where the discussion covered Ukraine as well as several other subjects. Those included Russia’s possible role in helping address the war in Iran, potential fertilizer exports from Russia to the United States, and Hubbard’s release.
The prisoner release could offer a rare point of cooperation between Washington and Moscow at a time when their wider relationship remains deeply strained by the conflict in Ukraine and disagreements over security in Europe.
Oslo Talks Focused on Security and Recovery
US and Ukrainian officials made what was described as meaningful progress during the Oslo meeting on Tuesday. Ukrainian representatives presented additional ideas and proposals, and the two sides discussed them in detail while working toward agreement on the next stage of diplomacy.
The agenda included a comprehensive framework for peace, with particular attention to long-term security guarantees for Ukraine. Officials also discussed a plan for economic recovery and prosperity after the war, along with a wider European security structure intended to support lasting stability.
For Kyiv, security guarantees remain central to any settlement. Ukraine and its partners have emphasized that an agreement must address the risk of another Russian invasion. They have also reaffirmed their opposition to surrendering Ukrainian territory as part of a peace deal.
“We have some clear ideas on how to get to peace, and we are united with our European partners in this effort. And we want the Americans to take these ideas to the Russians,” Zelensky said Tuesday. “Let’s see what Putin has to say.”
The discussions highlight the gap between the principles Ukraine says are essential and the demands Russia has advanced. Moscow has called for Ukraine to give up the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, much of which is under Russian control. Russia has also demanded a major reduction in Ukraine’s military and a commitment that the country will never join NATO.
Diplomatic Momentum Meets Russian Resistance
Washington’s objective is to build on the conversations with Ukraine and European partners, bring the proposals to Russia, and establish a route toward direct trilateral talks and broader multilateral negotiations.
Officials involved in the US-Ukrainian discussions said their teams were working closely and shared an interest in finding practical ways to bring the war to an end. That positive assessment comes despite a public relationship that has become more difficult between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered a more guarded assessment before Witkoff’s meeting with Putin. He said Moscow would hear the US envoy’s proposals but would not make what he called political concessions. Lavrov also said Russia did not expect a breakthrough and suggested Washington would remain a rival “at best.”
That stance underscores a core challenge for the diplomatic effort: agreement among Ukraine, the United States and European governments is only one part of the process. Any framework would still need to be treated seriously by Russia, whose stated conditions remain far apart from Kyiv’s declared red lines.
A European official in Oslo said the principal difficulty was less about the existence of plans than about persuading Russia to engage substantively with them.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, has also taken part in peace-related discussions. He was unable to attend the meeting in Russia in person because he has the flu, but was expected to join remotely.
The St. Petersburg talks are part of an effort to turn separate conversations with Ukraine, Europe and Russia into a more formal negotiation process. Whether they can produce movement on the main disputes — territory, military security and Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO — remains uncertain.
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