Witkoff to present Putin with peace proposal after talks with Zelensky

White House envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday and present him with an updated proposal to end the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official said.President Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner will join the meeting virtually.Why it matters: The White House hopes Putin will show more willingness to compromise after Trump agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel sales and took other steps welcomed by Moscow.Driving the news: Witkoff will arrive in Russia after a day of talks in Oslo, Norway with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as the leaders of Norway and Finland and representatives from France, the UK, Germany, Poland, the EU and NATO.Zelensky said on Tuesday that the next step should be a trilateral meeting between him, Putin and Trump — something Russia has refused to do so far.The U.S. hopes the new proposal will "create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations," a U.S. official said. Zoom in: The discussions in Oslo focused on developing a unified proposal for a "framework agreement" to end the war.The U.S. official said Ukraine "brought forward new ideas and proposals, wh…

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