OMM Newsroom
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said US intelligence sharing on deadly Russian missile attacks “works now” after talks with President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo.
The meeting came after Kyiv accused Washington of withholding key intelligence, a claim US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected as “scandalous”, according to BBC World.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who also attended the talks, said “genuine progress” had been made on proposals for peace. He gave no details and cautioned that patience would be needed.
Zelensky and his European allies said Russia must now respond to the proposals agreed in Oslo. Witkoff is due to travel to St Petersburg on Wednesday, but he did not attend the joint news conference after Tuesday’s talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not publicly commented on the latest developments. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that the Kremlin would listen to Witkoff’s proposals, while ruling out “any political concessions”.
Zelensky says intelligence sharing has resumed
Speaking after the talks, Zelensky said he was “thankful that intelligence works now”. He said early warnings were important because they allowed civilians, including children, to hear when a ballistic missile was coming.
“So we are thankful to the American side, now it works, it’s great,” he said.
Zelensky also said he hoped for a positive outcome on access to the “Starlink” satellite network. Ukraine’s military had reported speed restrictions in recent days on the US platform, which Kyiv uses to carry out drone strikes against Russia.
He reiterated that Ukraine was “ready for negotiations” to end the war. “Of course, we are not losing this war, but we are losing people because Russia attacks,” he said.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who took part in the Oslo talks, said Europe “needs to be at the table” in discussions on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Zelensky brought Ukraine’s intelligence chief Rustem Umerov and lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia to Oslo. Earlier this month, the two had held talks in Miami with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump urges Kyiv to reach a deal
Those Miami talks reportedly ended abruptly after the Ukrainian delegation learned that Trump had announced 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. Zelensky called the announcement “a happy birthday present” for Putin.
Relations between Ukraine and the United States have deteriorated in recent weeks. Trump has said Ukraine should get a new president and, more recently, that “somebody else” should negotiate on the country’s behalf.
After Zelensky’s news conference in Oslo, Trump told reporters at the White House that he wanted Kyiv to “make a deal”. He said Russia wanted to “get it done” and that it was “time for Ukraine to end this war”.
With next month’s US midterm elections approaching, Trump has blamed Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries for rising fuel prices, which have increased since the start of the US-led war on Iran.
European leaders have voiced concern about recent US statements concerning Russia. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that the messages on the war were “mixed”, adding that he was trying to convince the US government that the conflict had to be resolved jointly.
“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,” Merz told Bloomberg TV.
Asked in an interview on Monday 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 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,” Vance said. “We’re gonna work together on some things, but also we’re going to be opposite on some things too.”
Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Russian drone attacks continued on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials said at least 10 people were killed: four in Kyiv and the capital region, four in the eastern Donetsk region, and two in the central city of Dnipro.
