Driving the news: Witkoff will arrive in Russia after a day of talks in Oslo, Norway, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the leaders of Norway and Finland and representatives of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the EU and NATO.
- Zelensky said Tuesday that the next step should be a trilateral meeting between him, Putin and Trump – something Russia has refused to do so far.
- The United States hopes the new proposal will “create a path toward direct trilateral negotiations and broader multilateral negotiations,” a U.S. official said.
Zoom: Discussions in Oslo focused on developing a unified proposal for a “framework agreement” to end the war.
- The US official said Ukraine “presented new ideas and proposals, which were discussed in detail.”
- The official said the parties had made “significant progress” and were now “strongly aligned at an operational level” on next steps.
Behind the scenes: Kushner joined the meeting virtually and again pressed Trump’s demand that Ukraine end strikes against Russian oil refineries, according to a knowledgeable source.
- “Jared was very direct,” the person said.
- Zelensky said after the meeting that he was ready to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow took reciprocal measures.
What he says: Trump said Tuesday that he thought “Russia would like to achieve this” but expressed doubts about Zelensky’s willingness to end the war.
“If he doesn’t do it, it will be a very bad thing,” Trump added. “We want Zelensky to make a deal… If they don’t make a deal, the situation will get worse (for Ukraine).”
Gn world
