Kushner Pressed Ukraine to Halt Refinery Strikes at Oslo Talks, Axios Says

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and special envoy of US President Donald Trump, who joined the 20 October talks in Oslo remotely, repeated Trump’s demand that Ukraine stop attacks on Russian oil refineries, Axios reports, as relayed by Evropeiska Pravda.

A source told the outlet that Kushner joined the meeting virtually and again insisted on the demand. “Jared was very direct,” the source said. After the meeting, Zelensky said he is ready to stop strikes on Russian refineries if Moscow takes reciprocal steps.

Updated proposal for Putin

According to a US official, on Wednesday in St. Petersburg Witkoff will meet Vladimir Putin and present him with an updated proposal to end the war in Ukraine. The US hopes the new proposal will “open the way to direct trilateral and broader multilateral talks”.

The White House hopes Putin will show more willingness to compromise after Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports and took other steps welcomed in Moscow. The US official said Ukraine “put forward new ideas and proposals” that were discussed in detail, and that the sides reached “significant progress” and now have “firm agreement at the working level” on next steps.

Who was in Oslo

On Tuesday, talks took place in Oslo between Zelensky, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and US representatives Witkoff and Kushner. Afterwards Stubb said they covered security, energy and economic issues in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. During the visit Zelensky was also received by Norway’s King Harald.