Ukraine: Witkoff is meeting Putin. Rubio: ‘Talks with Zelenskyy have been positive’

The Ukrainian armed forces have carried out a number of attacks on energy infrastructure in the Donbas and Crimea, according to the Kyiv Independent. Specifically, facilities in the town of Chystiakove, in the Donetsk Oblast, were targeted. In addition, power cuts have been reported in Crimea due to drone attacks, and a telecommunications site in Luhansk has been damaged. In the Krasnoperekopskyi district of Crimea, there have been drone attacks near the railway station

Two people have died and a further 11, including two children, have been injured in a Russian drone attack on the village of Korotych, in the Kharkiv region. This was reported by Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda, who explained that as a result of the attack, 13 private homes and a car were damaged in the village, whilst a farm building was destroyed. The victims are an 81-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man.

White House envoy Steve Witkoff is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg today and present him with an updated proposal to end the war in Ukraine. Axios reports this, citing a US official, adding that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, will take part in the meeting remotely. The White House, the publication notes, hopes that Putin will show greater willingness to compromise after Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel sales and took other measures welcomed by Moscow. Witkoff will arrive in Russia following a day of talks in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the leaders of Norway and Finland, and representatives from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, the European Union and NATO.

Zelensky stated that the next step should be a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin and Trump – a format that Russia has so far rejected. The United States hopes that the new proposal might “pave the way for direct trilateral negotiations and broader multilateral talks”, a US official said. The Oslo talks focused on drawing up a joint proposal for a framework agreement aimed at ending the war. According to the US official, Ukraine “put forward new ideas and proposals, which were discussed in detail”. The parties, he added, had made “significant progress” and achieved “strong alignment at the operational level” on the next steps.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the talks in Oslo between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” and stated that the latter is now travelling to Russia. This was reported by AFP. “It was a positive meeting; nothing unexpected or surprising. Now, armed with these ideas, he will be able to travel to St Petersburg to share them with the Russian side. Let’s see if we can make some progress,” Rubio said during his visit to Mumbai.