US envoy Witkoff meets Putin in St Petersburg, shuttle diplomacy runs Oslo to Constantine Palace while Trump presses Zelensky to deal

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Trump envoy Witkoff to meet Putin in St. Petersburg for Ukraine war talks – WTOP News wtop.com

US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St Petersburg on Wednesday to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, one day after meeting Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Oslo. Putin will host Witkoff at the Constantine Palace, with presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev joining a agenda that, according to Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov, has a Ukrainian settlement as its integral part.

The shuttle diplomacy comes as the war's terms remain far apart and the armies exchange daily long-range strikes. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is willing to listen to new American proposals but does not expect a "miracle" from Washington. Trump's peace effort, launched early last year, has produced no significant progress, and nobody briefed on the meetings suggested a breakthrough was imminent.

What has changed is the pressure on Kyiv. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that "we want Zelensky to make a deal", adding that the United States had "gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss" — and warning that failure to settle would be "a very bad thing". Zelensky, in Oslo, said partners had resumed early warnings of incoming Russian missiles after recent strikes arrived without adequate notice, a fix that followed his phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The choreography is difficult to miss. Witkoff met Zelensky and the Europeans in Oslo, then flew to Putin's palace; Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he expects the envoy back in Oslo afterwards. The parties who launched and finance the war's opposite sides talk directly; the parties who host the refugees and buy the fuel wait for the readout. Europe's absence from the Constantine Palace table is the meeting's most reliable outcome.