Hopes of a three-way peace meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky have been revived after the Ukrainian president raised the possibility during talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Norway.
Mr Zelensky said the two men had discussed a trilateral meeting to address issues that could be resolved only by the leaders themselves. Mr Witkoff was due to travel to Russia to present ideas from the Oslo discussions and proposals from American and European colleagues.
“Steve is going to Russia tomorrow, and let’s see what Putin has to say,” Mr Zelensky told reporters.
The talks were hosted by Norway and Finland as part of efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. A US official described the meeting as “very productive and constructive”, with “strong alignment at the working level” between the US, Ukraine and Europe over the next steps.
Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, said “genuine progress” had been made on peace proposals, although he gave no further details.
Mr Witkoff arrived in St Petersburg on Wednesday and was expected to meet Mr Putin at the Constantine Palace during the first half of the day. Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the meeting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was prepared to listen to new American proposals on Ukraine, but did not expect any “miracle” from Washington.
The discussions came as the Trump administration’s efforts to broker an end to the war have made no significant progress. There was no indication that a breakthrough was imminent.
At the White House, Mr Trump increased pressure on Mr Zelensky to reach an agreement with Russia, saying: “We want Zelensky to make a deal.”
“We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office.
He added: “If that doesn’t happen, I think it’s going to be a very bad thing.”
Ukraine receives renewed missile warnings
Mr Zelensky also said Ukraine was once again receiving early warnings from its partners about incoming Russian missiles after recent strikes that he said had taken place without notice.
He said the warnings allowed civilians to seek safety and gave Ukrainian forces time to try to intercept ballistic missiles. The change followed discussions with American officials, including a telephone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We are thankful that intelligence works now, and I’m speaking about early warning, which is very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic is coming,” Mr Zelensky said during his visit to Norway.
“So we are thankful to the American side now that it works.”
Mr Zelensky has said Ukraine is close to exhausting its supply of American-made Patriot air-defence interceptors, which it needs to counter Russian ballistic missiles. He also accused the Pentagon of delaying missiles bought for Ukraine by other countries.
He said restrictions on the speed of Ukraine’s use of Starshield, the military-grade version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, were still hampering battlefield operations.
Russian attacks continued across Ukraine. Police said four people had been killed and 27 wounded, including children, in missile and drone strikes in the Kyiv region over the previous day.
Three people were killed and six wounded in the Obukhiv district, while one woman was killed and 21 people were injured in Bucha, including eight children. Authorities said hundreds of buildings were damaged.
Two more people were killed in an attack on warehouses near Dnipro, while power outages were reported in 12 regions after the strikes.
