OMM Newsroom
US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Norway ahead of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as relations between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump remain strained, according to the BBC.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Zelensky had asked Norway and neighbouring Finland to organise a meeting with the United States and European allies “at a critical time for Ukraine”.
Before the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “scandalous” and “outrageous” allegations that Ukrainians were dying because the United States was withholding intelligence from Kyiv.
Rubio was responding to comments by Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, Zelensky’s military technical adviser, who told the BBC that a lack of reliable US warnings was costing lives. “This looks very strange,” Beskrestnov said. “Sometimes we receive this information before the attack, another time we do not.”
Relations between Kyiv and Washington have deteriorated in recent weeks. Trump has said Ukraine should get a new president and, more recently, that “somebody else” should negotiate on its behalf.
Støre said the Oslo talks aimed to put relations on “a more constructive path”. Speaking to reporters at Norway’s parliament, he said the goal was to ensure the war ended through diplomacy, with a lasting and just peace.
Zelensky said earlier that he had held a “constructive discussion” with Rubio about the need for US early warnings, missile interceptors and the Starlink internet network operated by “SpaceX”.
Discussions focus on warnings and air defence
Last week, a bipartisan group of US senators called for an urgent investigation into disruptions to the “Starlink” network in Ukraine. Unconfirmed reports on Tuesday said the transfer of additional Patriot interceptors had not yet been approved.
Rubio, who is visiting India, told reporters it could be true that Patriot interceptor missiles had not yet arrived in Ukraine. He said, however, that nothing had been intentionally denied to Kyiv.
Witkoff is expected to be joined by video link by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and several European representatives, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Officials from the UK, Poland, France and Germany, as well as representatives of the EU and NATO, are also expected to take part.
It is not yet clear whether Witkoff will travel to Russia after his visit to Oslo. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he hoped a meeting with Trump’s special envoy could be arranged in the near future, adding: “We greatly appreciate the mediation efforts of the American negotiators.”
European leaders voice concern over US statements
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the war with Trump by phone. Soon afterwards, the US president announced that Moscow would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to the United States and other markets, ending US sanctions on Russian diesel exports.
European leaders have expressed concern about recent US statements on Russia. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that there were “mixed pictures and messages” about the war, adding that he was trying to convince the US government “in total that this is something we have to resolve jointly”.
Merz said the United States had not been paying for Ukraine’s defence since the start of 2025, leaving Europe and other countries to shoulder the burden. “It’s really a big effort for our budgets, it’s really a big thing for the European Union, but we are doing that and we are trying to keep on doing that until this terrible war ends,” he told “Bloomberg TV”.
Asked in a television interview whether Ukraine was a US ally, Vice-President JD Vance said Kyiv was “certainly a partner in some ways”, but that the two countries sometimes had divergent interests. He said, for example, that he believed Ukraine should stop bombing Russian energy infrastructure.
“We don’t have a formal alliance as far as I know with Ukraine. They’re not in NATO, I don’t think they should be in NATO... We’re gonna work together on some things, but also we’re going to be opposite on some things too,” Vance said.
