21 Oct 2026, 05:50 AM

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Talks in Oslo made ‘meaningful progress’ toward engaging Russia, a US official said. What we know on day 1,701US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after what a US official called “constructive” talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway. The US official said Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals to the Oslo talks, which also involved the leaders of Norway and Finland ⁠and European and Nato representatives, and that participants made “meaningful ⁠progress” toward a coordinated approach to engaging Russia.The official, who ​spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the talks covered “key elements of a comprehensive peace framework”, including security guarantees for Ukraine, a postwar economic plan and a broader European security architecture. Witkoff would aim to “create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations”, the official said. US president Donald ⁠Trump on Tuesday ⁠called ​on Ukraine to make a deal ⁠to settle the war with Russia. “Ukraine has to ⁠want to settle this ​war,” Trump ‌told reporters.Zelenskyy travelled to Oslo seeking to repair relations with Washington, which have sunk to new lows. Trump’s recent gestures toward Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and a waiver of new sanctions, have sparked bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and worry in European capitals. Zelenskyy said he had ​discussed “Article 5-like” security guarantees, referring to the Nato stipulation that an attack on one ally is an attack on all. “I am ‌thankful to the American side that they underlined again that it will ‌be strong,” he said.Elon Musk last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade ⁠version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service that Ukraine relies on, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US ⁠officials and people familiar ⁠with the ​matter. Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Ukraine uses the service – known as Starshield – for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the satellite service hampered the country’s attack and air ⁠defence drone missions against Russia.US defence secretary Pete Hegseth meanwhile insisted Tuesday that the Pentagon had not directed any changes to Starshield, saying: “We haven’t pulled anything back.” “Nothing’s changed from our view. We haven’t made any directives or anything like that,” he said. On Friday, Trump said he did not request any curbs to Starshield. “It wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said. Musk previously said that “any limits on speed or usage” of Starshield systems were “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”Nato said Tuesday it was deploying additional planes, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea after a string of attacks on ships near Romania and Bulgaria in the latest spillover from Russia’s war on Ukraine. “Allies have or will send additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems, explosive exploitation teams, intelligence personnel, drones, and more to the Black Sea,” said Col Martin O’Donnell, a Nato spokesperson. “The most important thing we can do, however, is to increase our situational awareness in the region through increased sensors and data sharing,” he added.The ⁠Russian military ⁠struck ​three cargo vessels in Ukraine’s ⁠port of Reni and two ⁠other cargo vessels en ​route ‌to ‌Odesa, Russia’s defence ‌ministry said on Tuesday. Russian forces also hit two logistics hubs in ‌the Volyn region and in the ​city of Khmelnitskiy, it said, adding that ⁠the vessels and hubs ​were ​all being ​used for ​military ‌purposes. Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, officials said.The Kremlin said Tuesday that work was under way to ease ⁠the humanitarian ⁠situation ​in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky in southern ⁠where residents have reported a worsening food crisis. Kremlin spokesperson ⁠Dmitry Peskov said ‌Putin had ‌discussed the situation in Oleshky with Trump and told him that Russia’s human rights commissioner was engaged on the issue. Continue reading...

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