US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in St Petersburg to hold talks with Russian leaders on the war in Ukraine, after negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway that were described as "positive".
Witkoff is scheduled to meet President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in the northwestern Russian city, as Washington pushes to end a war that has now run for more than four and a half years since Russia launched its full-scale military campaign against Ukraine.
In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has voiced growing frustration with Zelenskyy and suggested that someone else should negotiate on Kyiv's behalf. The remarks signaled a new low in relations between the two leaders, while Zelenskyy accused the US of suspending the sharing of vital intelligence.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Witkoff's talks with Zelenskyy "positive" and said the envoy would share the results with Putin. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner also took part in the talks with Zelenskyy, but joined online because he was ill. Kushner is also expected to join the meeting with Putin remotely.
"Now, with those ideas, he'll be able to go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side – and let's see whether we can make any progress," Rubio said.
The prime ministers of Norway and Finland also attended the Oslo talks, along with representatives of the European Union and NATO. After Tuesday's meeting, Zelenskyy said "very, very important" intelligence from the US had been restored.
Zelenskyy also accused Washington of slowing the Starshield internet service, which is crucial to Ukraine's combat operations. Starshield is the military-grade version of Starlink, also developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Rubio rejected Zelenskyy's accusation, saying Trump "has nothing to do with the decisions made by Starlink and Starshield". Musk disputed this, arguing that such decisions could only be made by the US military and the president.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Musk ordered the service to be slowed, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter.
As diplomatic efforts intensify, Russia and Ukraine continue to exchange long-range strikes.
The governor of Russia's western Bryansk region, Yegor Kovalchuk, said on Telegram that at least one person was killed and two wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the region on Wednesday.
Ukraine's emergency services said two people were killed in a Russian attack on a high-rise building in the Sviatoshinsky district of the capital, Kyiv.
