Oct. 17 — Steve Witkoff, the US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, claimed after talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, that the discussions on an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war will continue with trilateral talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine at the technical level, Witkoff said on his X’s account.

On Oct. 20-21, Witkoff visited Oslo, Norway, and St. Petersburg, Russia, where he met with Russian, Ukrainian, and European leaders “to advance President Trump’s mission to end the war.”

Witkoff said that, together with Zelenskyy in Oslo, they built on the progress that the special envoy later presented to Putin for peace framework discussion.

Axios said that after Witkoff’s meetings, both the Ukrainian and Russian sides agreed to resume trilateral talks with the US participation.

Zelenskyy told journalists that the trilateral meeting should be organized as soon as possible — “not later than early November.”

He also said on his Telegram channel that after meeting with Witkoff, the Russians launched 21 missiles at Kyiv, killing 2 and injuring more than 30 people.

Witkoff’s communication with Putin began with the release of Stephen Hubbard, a citizen of the United States, who was accused of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine in the Kharkiv region in 2022.

Trump said that he had been talking with Putin about the American who was wrongfully detained by Russia’s law enforcement. He said he asked Putin to release the American, and Russia did not demand anything in return.

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