A woman stands at the site of her relatives' house, which was destroyed during a Russian air strike on the outskirts of Dnipro, Ukraine, on October 19.

Zelenskyy To Meet US Envoy Witkoff In Oslo Amid Trump Tensions And Russian Attacks

20 Oct 2026, 09:25 by RFE/RL · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will take part in meetings in Oslo to discuss the situation in Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russia continues to pound the country amid growing tensions between Kyiv and Washington.

The Norwegian government said in a statement that Zelenskyy would arrive in Norway on October 20 to meet with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to put "diplomatic efforts on a more constructive path."

"Ukraine has requested that US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner join the meetings," Store said. The statement added that Witkoff would travel to Oslo, while Kushner, who is ill, would participate remotely.

Zelenskyy will also be received by the Norwegian king and visit the country's parliament, the statement said.

Most US talks with Ukraine have involved Witkoff and Kushner and negotiators appointed by Zelenskyy, rather than the Ukrainian president himself. Neither Zelenskyy nor Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended any direct Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the war.

The meetings in Oslo come amid tensions between US President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leader.

Trump suggested Zelenskyy should not be involved in negotiations to end the full-scale invasion Russia launched against his country in February 2022, his latest statement in which he has voiced doubt about Zelenskyy's commitment to seeking peace.

"To be honest, I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine," Trump said.

The remarks came amid concerns in Ukraine over a series of moves that Zelenskyy has said would play into Russian President Vladimir Putin's hands. In the past two weeks, Trump has announced a deal encouraging Russian diesel exports and waived sanctions that were about to be imposed under a law he signed last month.

Trump also said on October 19 that he was open to holding a trilateral meeting with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an APEC summit next month in China.

"If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it," Trump said. However, he added the main purpose of the meeting would be to discuss "nuclear weapons and denuclearization," rather than Russia's war against Ukraine.

"I would do it, not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much," Trump told reporters when asked whether he would attend a meeting with Putin and Xi to discuss Ukraine.

Ahead of his visit to Oslo, Zelenskyy said he had a "substantive" conversation and a "constructive" discussion with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Zelenskyy said they had discussed several issues, including ballistic missile interceptors, early warning systems for Russian ballistic missile attacks, and the situation regarding Starlink and Starshield satellite communications systems.

"I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position," Zelenskyy said in a post on X on October 20.

Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine, killing at least three people in the Kyiv region and injuring several others.

The bodies were discovered as emergency crews battled a fire at a production and storage facility outside the Ukrainian capital, Tymur Tkachenko, the region's military governor, wrote on Telegram.

In a separate attack, a Russian drone struck near the Kyiv-Odesa highway, killing three people and injuring four others, according to preliminary reports cited by the Kyiv regional prosecutor's office and regional authorities. The number of casualties was still verified.

Drone strikes were also reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in the Khmelnytskiy, Ternopil, and Lviv regions of western Ukraine.

Overnight, Russian forces attacked three energy facilities in the Odesa region, energy company DTEK reported on October 20, adding that more than 30,000 households remained without electricity following the attack.

Meanwhile, Telegram monitoring channels, citing local residents, reported that a diesel fuel storage tank caught fire after Ukrainian drones struck an oil facility in Russia's Tambov region.

The Russian military had not immediately confirmed the reported strike but said its air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones, including some over the Tambov region.

Zelenskyy To Meet US Envoy Witkoff In Oslo Amid Trump Tensions And Russian Attacks

Zelenskyy To Meet US Envoy Witkoff In Oslo Amid Trump Tensions And Russian Attacks

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