Oslo talks and the trip to Russia

On 20 October, Steve Witkoff met Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo, with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb taking part in a trilateral format, while Jared Kushner joined by video link. Zelensky said he had arrived in Norway with his team and that the meetings were meant to help keep the peace process moving. Marco Rubio described the Oslo talks as positive and said nothing in them was unexpected. Støre called the talks positive and constructive and said Witkoff would travel to St Petersburg the next day to present the results of the proposals to Moscow. Axios had reported on 19 October that Witkoff hoped to visit Russia and meet Putin after consulting Zelensky.

Meeting with Putin in St Petersburg

On Wednesday, 21 October, Witkoff met Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg, according to TASS. Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian presidential envoy, greeted Witkoff at Pulkovo airport. Putin said he was interested in restoring relations and economic cooperation between Russia and the United States, and he praised the diesel agreement reached with the Trump administration. Putin also asked Witkoff about the Oslo talks. Witkoff said he hoped Russia would consider resuming peace talks among the United States, Russia and Ukraine, including technical discussions, and described the Oslo meeting as productive, creating a basis for moving toward a ceasefire. Reports said he brought documents setting out proposals, but no full details of the outcome were available at the time of reporting.

Prisoner release and a possible Trump-Putin meeting

Witkoff announced before the Putin meeting that Russia had freed an American citizen imprisoned on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. Reports identify the man as someone arrested in 2024, and his release was announced on the day of the meeting. Citing Russian state television, Reuters reported that Putin proposed a meeting with Trump in China. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping could hold a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in November in China, but that no specific proposals or agreements had been made on its format or agenda. Trump had said earlier in the week that he was open to meeting Putin and Xi if the talks focused on nuclear disarmament. Reports said it was not clear whether Trump had accepted the proposal.

Strikes continue on the ground

Fighting continued alongside the diplomacy. A Russian drone struck a passenger bus in Zaporizhzhia and injured one person, according to Mykhailo Semykin, acting head of the regional military administration, who posted the report on Telegram. The Kyiv Independent reported that Ukrainian forces had hit energy infrastructure in Donetsk district in occupied Donbas and a telecommunications site in Luhansk, and that blackouts were reported in Crimea after drone attacks. Retired US Army Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, in comments reported by Euronews, accused Trump of deliberately undermining Ukraine's ability to defend itself and said the administration's actions were fully predictable. Hodges also said Trump had dropped new sanctions against Russia shortly before they were due to take effect.