Trump envoy Witkoff meets Putin for Ukraine war talks

St. Petersburg US special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at advancing proposals to end to the war in Ukraine and create a pathway to broader negotiations. The talks on Wednesday morning in St. Petersburg came off the back of Witkoff’s Tuesday summit with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Norway. In video of the beginning of the three-hour meeting with Putin, Witkoff said discussing the outcomes of that “productive” Oslo summit was on the agenda. “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,” the Trump administration envoy said. Witkoff implored Putin to consider resuming trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine talks, where technical issues could be discussed, he said in the meeting. Despite the optimistic tone, there are no indications so far that Russia has budged on any of its maximalist positions. Russia’s previous demands amount to near-total victory – calling for Ukraine to give up the entire eastern Ukrainian Donbas region, which is now mostly under Russian occupation. Moscow has also called for Ukraine to dramatically reduce the size of its military and pledge to never join NATO. During the latest talks, Putin expressed interest in the topic of restoring economic cooperation with the United States and the possibility of a meeting with China to discuss Ukraine. That follows recent moves by the Trump administration to waive sanctions on Russia and strike a deal on diesel exports. A key outcome of the meeting was Witkoff announcing that Russia has released 74-year-old American prisoner Stephen Hubbard, who has been detained in the country for more than four years. A video obtained by CNN after the meeting shows Hubbard speaking with Witkoff at the airport in St. Petersburg. Putin, Witkoff and translators sat around a large round table as they discussed a wide range of issues including Russia’s willingness to help resolve the war in Iran, potential Russian fertilizer exports to the US and the release of Hubbard. The meeting continued behind closed doors, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who has also been involved in the peace negotiations, joined remotely given he has the flu.