Russian news agencies, citing the Kremlin, said Witkoff and Putin would discuss the conflict in Ukraine during morning talks. Putin’s adviser Kirill Dmitriev will also take part, the sources said.
“I don’t know whether any agreement will be reached today, but the talks on the conflict in Ukraine are, of course, the main focus of today’s discussions”, Interfax quoted Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov as saying.
Witkoff flew to Russia’s second-largest city from Oslo, where he held talks on Tuesday with Zelensky, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
A US official told Reuters and Axios that the Oslo talks were “very productive and constructive”, and that Ukraine had presented “new ideas and proposals that were discussed in detail”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is continuing a visit to India, said Witkoff’s meeting with Zelensky was positive and had gone without surprises. He told reporters Witkoff would share with the Russian side the issues raised in Oslo.
Rubio declined to answer media questions about a slowdown in the Starlink satellite system in Ukraine. “I'm not aware that we knew about this decision beforehand. But that's irrelevant”, he said.
Rubio, President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have all denied that Washington decided to change how Starlink works in Ukraine. According to Kyiv, the system stopped working for objects moving faster than 160 km/h (100 mph), limiting Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian drones and missiles.
On Tuesday, Trump called on Ukraine to make a deal to end the war with Russia.
“Ukraine has to want to settle this war”, he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump suggested Moscow had the upper hand in the fight, saying: “Russia is a big machine - they just keep grinding forward, and that’s what they’ve done. They’ve taken a very large piece of land”.
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Source: PAP, Polish Radio, Reuters