Zelenskyy calls talks with Witkoff very productive

Witkoff is due to meet President Putin later Wednesday, with Kushner joining, a U.S. official says.

Witkoff is due to meet Putin later Wednesday, with Kushner joining, a U.S. official says. The meeting follows days of travel by Witkoff and Kushner between Moscow and Finland as the two sides try to narrow a peace deal.

Finland's president said after meeting Zelenskyy and Witkoff that they had found progress toward holding a session in St Petersburg. Trump has said Putin and Zelenskyy do not have to be in the same room to sign a peace deal. A German government spokesperson said contacts with Washington suggest American interest in a negotiation process. None of those accounts includes confirmed terms from Moscow.

Zelenskyy has previously accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to make concessions, pointing to delayed Patriot missile deliveries and eased sanctions on Russia. U.S. envoys earlier told Kyiv directly that Putin remained unwilling to negotiate and that Moscow's precondition, securing the rest of the Donbas region, had not changed. Zelenskyy has described earlier rounds of Witkoff talks in similarly positive terms before, including just ahead of that assessment from Washington's own envoys. His comment on Wednesday adds another upbeat signal from Kyiv without evidence that the underlying stalemate over Donbas has shifted.