(AFP) – Russia’s Vladimir Putin began talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff on ending the Ukraine war in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, with the American official saying he had brought “ideas” for a possible peace deal. Witkoff travelled to Russia from Norway, where he met Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in talks Washington described as “positive.” The meeting is taking place as the United States pushes for an end to Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, with Russia pounding Ukrainian cities ahead of winter and amid a bitter feud between Donald Trump and Zelensky.
As Witkoff touched down in Putin’s home city, Russia announced it would soon begin shipments of diesel to the United States under a deal with Trump, and that it had freed a US citizen — Stephen Hubbard — held by Moscow since the start of the war on allegations of fighting as a “mercenary” for Ukraine. “We’ve brought some papers. It’s really some ideas, some sort of peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and you’ll read that at your leisure,” Witkoff — Trump’s business partner and envoy — told Putin in Saint Petersburg’s Konstantinovsky Palace.
Putin thanked Trump for his efforts to resolve the war and said he was eager to be informed about the US meeting with Zelensky. The longtime Russian leader has repeatedly refused to hold face-to-face talks with Zelensky and said that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine. Witkoff told Putin he hoped trilateral talks can resume. “I’m hoping that you might consider that as a next step in the peace process so we can begin to have technical teams discussing what are those next steps,” he told the Russian leader.
Putin thanked Trump for his “attention” to the conflict and said the US leader had “insisted that it was necessary to end this conflict” in their last phone call. Russia’s war against Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides as well as thousands of civilians. As Witkoff arrived in Saint Petersburg, Kyiv reported that Moscow’s strikes killed at least four people — including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region.
Meeting Putin, Witkoff described his talks with Zelensky as “productive.” “I think there’s some degree of momentum and I hope that today can be another step forward in the peace process and discussing how we resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” he said. Zelensky on Tuesday thanked Washington for the resumption of US intelligence sharing on Russian strikes. The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting in Norway followed days of friction between Washington and Kyiv, with Zelensky urging the US not to side with Russia and Trump calling for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also due to participate in Wednesday’s talks with Putin remotely. US-led talks on the conflict have so far not led to a breakthrough and Moscow insists it intends to press on with its offensive. Witkoff also told Putin that Washington was “grateful” for a diesel deal — met with astonishment in Kyiv and across Europe — that saw US sanctions on Moscow eased to allow Russian fuel to flow to the United States. The deal has been seen as a way to try to lower fuel prices for American consumers ahead of testing midterm elections in the US next month.
Washington was interested in further “business and economic cooperation” with Russia when the war ends, Witkoff said. “We even talk about it now openly with the Ukrainians to give them some sort of sense about what the possibilities will be when this whole conflict is over,” he said. Kyiv has pleaded with Western countries to put more pressure on Moscow and not lift sanctions.
Ahead of the talks, Putin announced that Stephen Hubbard, an American taken captive by Russian forces in Ukraine in 2022 and later sentenced to almost seven years in prison, had been freed. Trump had asked the Russian leader to free Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had always denied the charges he was a “mercenary” fighting for Ukraine. Witkoff hailed the move and called Putin a “humanitarian.” Trump later said that Hubbard was on his way to the United States and that the release had not been part of a swap deal.
© 2024 AFP
