US envoy Witkoff to meet Putin in Russia after 'positive' talks with Zelensky

Washington's envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Saint Petersburg to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday following what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as "positive" talks with Ukraine's leader. Russian news agency TASS reported that Witkoff landed in the city in the morning. The trip by US President Donald Trump's special envoy is part of efforts to draw a line under a bitter feud between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and the US president over the war with Russia. After talks with Witkoff in the Norwegian capital, Zelensky thanked Washington on Tuesday for the resumption of US intelligence on Russian strikes. The positive tone followed days of friction between Kyiv and Washington after Trump struck a diesel-supply deal with Putin and called for Zelensky to be replaced after Ukraine refused to stop hitting Russian oil refineries. "We are thankful that intelligence works," Zelensky told reporters in Oslo, describing the early warnings as "very, very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians" when ballistic missiles were about to strike. Read moreWhy have US-Ukraine relations soured ahead of the midterms? Rubio said during a visit to I...