Zelenskyy Takes Ukraine Talks to Oslo, With US Envoys Witkoff and Kushner Joining

Updated 14:35 UTC, Oct 21, 2026: Putin says Russia is willing in principle to resume trilateral talks in November

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday that Moscow is willing in principle to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States in November to end the war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after their meeting in St. Petersburg. No such talks have taken place since February, Reuters reported.

Ushakov said the talks should focus on security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends, and on building a security system for the two countries after the war. The meeting at the Constantine Palace lasted about three hours. CNN reported that there are no indications so far that Russia has budged on its earlier demands, which include Ukraine giving up the entire Donbas region, sharply reducing its military and pledging never to join NATO.

The statement from Moscow follows the update below, in which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier on Wednesday that he would accept a freeze along the current front lines and backed trilateral talks.

Updated 13:43 UTC, Oct 21, 2026: Zelenskyy says he would accept a freeze along the current front lines

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he would accept a peace deal that freezes the fighting along the current front lines, a step he has resisted earlier in the war. Asked on Fox News program Fox & Friends whether he would halt everything as it stands now, with Ukraine still holding 75 percent or more of its country, he answered yes.

"Right now we have to freeze, and I think this is a real way to end this war," Zelenskyy said, according to Reuters and the New York Post. "We call it a ceasefire. President Trump called it freeze and stop." He said a freeze was the minimum needed from Russia today, and that Kyiv would then go to President Donald Trump and to European partners to seek security guarantees so that occupation and aggression do not return.

Zelenskyy said giving up the Donbas region would not be fair, and said Russian forces are not winning on the battlefield. He said his talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday were productive, that Ukraine is ready for diplomacy, and that he supports trilateral talks among Ukraine, the United States and Russia, with European countries included as well. He thanked the United States for restoring intelligence sharing and said he hoped limits on the Starlink and Starshield satellite services would be lifted soon. He said he hoped Witkoff's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday would produce a positive result.

The Oslo report from Oct. 20 follows.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Oslo on Tuesday for talks on the war and European security, in a visit arranged at short notice as relations between Kyiv and Washington hit another low point.

Norway and Finland hosted the meeting. Zelenskyy met Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also joined the meetings, the Finnish president's office said. Norway confirmed that Kushner took part remotely.

A meeting Kyiv asked for

"President Zelensky has asked Norway and Finland to organise a meeting as part of the ongoing diplomatic efforts at this critical time for Ukraine," Støre said. He said the aim was to steer the diplomatic efforts onto a more constructive path, and that Ukraine had asked for the two US envoys to take part.

During the visit, Zelenskyy also had an audience with King Haakon at the Royal Palace and went to the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, to meet its president and parliamentary leaders. A joint press conference with Zelenskyy, Stubb and Støre was set to follow the meeting.

Missiles, warnings and satellites

Ahead of the talks, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian missile attacks and the situation with Starlink and Starshield, the SpaceX satellite systems used by Ukrainian forces, which he said need to be restored.

Kyiv says Washington has lately failed to provide early warning of Russian missile launches, has limited the satellite links that help guide Ukrainian drones, and has not delivered air defences paid for by European allies. Zelenskyy told US senators on Monday that the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles already paid for by European countries, and that the shipment is waiting for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's signature. Several European countries are ready to hand over Patriot interceptors from their own stockpiles, he said, but still need US approval.

Rubio, who visited Uzbekistan on Monday, denied that intelligence sharing with Ukraine had been withdrawn, and backed Trump's call for Zelenskyy to focus on ending the conflict.

Trump praises Moscow and rebukes Kyiv

On Monday, President Donald Trump said Russia had been "fine on Ukraine" and that Zelenskyy was not helping matters much. He said Kyiv should find somebody else to negotiate an end to the war.

The United States under Trump has largely stopped sending weapons to Ukraine, but it still lets European countries buy US weapons on Kyiv's behalf and provides intelligence and technology that Europe cannot match.

Witkoff and Kushner last met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sep 5, 2026, in talks that ran for more than three hours and produced no public breakthrough. Witkoff was expected to travel on to Russia after Oslo, to present ideas developed with Ukraine and its European partners.

For Zelenskyy, the Oslo stop was a chance to pull the diplomacy back toward Kyiv, with two European hosts at the table and Washington's envoys taking part, at a moment when the American help his country depends on has become a matter of open dispute.