Witkoff shuttles between Zelensky and Putin: What Trump's envoy brought from Oslo to Moscow

Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, is meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg to deliver proposals from negotiation groups, which Ukraine's parliamentary foreign policy chief predicts Putin will reject. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Verkhovna Rada committee on foreign policy, forecasts Putin will not outright refuse the proposals but will instead agree in principle while demanding his own capitulation terms. Merezhko's assessment follows Witkoff's three-hour talks with Putin, after which the envoy returns to Oslo to brief negotiators. The meetings in Oslo and St. Petersburg mark a resumption of peace contacts between Ukraine, the US, and Russia. Ukrainian officials expect the Russian leader to use the diplomatic channel to reiterate maximalist demands rather than engage in genuine compromise.