Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is thankful to the US as intelligence on Russian missile strikes "works now," after talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Oslo.
Zelenskyy had previously said that Washington had temporarily paused some intelligence sharing with Kyiv before resuming it.
"We are thankful that intelligence works.... I'm speaking about early warning, what is very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians, because we can hear when ballistic [missiles are] coming," Zelenskyy told reporters in Oslo after the talks, which were hosted by by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is currently visiting India, said on October 20 that he had a long conversation with Zelenskyy and rejected any suggestion of a “deliberate political directive to harm Ukraine."
"There's nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine," Rubio said, adding that reports that the US was not giving Ukraine early warning of Russian ballistic missile attacks were "scandalous."
Ahead of his visit to Oslo, Zelenskyy said he had a "substantive" conversation and a "constructive" discussion with Rubio.
The Ukrainian president said they had discussed several issues, including ballistic missile interceptors, early warning systems for Russian ballistic missile attacks, and the situation regarding Starlink and Starshield satellite communications systems.
"I am grateful for his readiness to help and his clear position," Zelenskyy said in a post on X on October 20.
After the Oslo talks, Store said Witkoff was headed to Russia on October 21 to meet with the country's leadership and "exchange ideas" from today's meeting. Russia's state news agency TASS, citing a source, reported that Witkoff is set to visit Russia.
While some US media outlets have reported that Witkoff' will visit Russia, the White House has not confirmed.
Finnish President Stubb said the Oslo talks produced “genuine progress” on both the long-term outlook and more immediate issues.
He said the participants had identified “some elements of peace” on the bigger picture, along with key points on security and the economy. Those ideas, he said, would be taken to St. Petersburg when Witkoff meets with Russian officials.
US-Ukraine Tensions
Most US talks with Ukraine have involved Witkoff and Kushner -- who, according to the Norwegian prime minister, attended the Oslo talks via video link -- and negotiators appointed by Zelenskyy, rather than the Ukrainian president himself. Neither Zelenskyy nor Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended any direct Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the war.
The meetings in Oslo come amid tensions between US President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
Trump suggested Zelenskyy should not be involved in negotiations to end the full-scale invasion Russia launched against his country in February 2022, his latest statement in which he has voiced doubt about Zelenskyy's commitment to seeking peace.
"To be honest, I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine," Trump said.
The remarks came amid concerns in Ukraine over a series of moves that Zelenskyy has said would play into Putin's hands. In the past two weeks, Trump has announced a deal encouraging Russian diesel exports and waived sanctions that were about to be imposed under a law he signed last month.
Trump also said on October 19 that he was open to holding a trilateral meeting with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an APEC summit next month in China.
"If President Xi wants to have it, I'd have it," Trump said. However, he added the main purpose of the meeting would be to discuss "nuclear weapons and denuclearization," rather than Russia's war against Ukraine.
"I would do it, not so much for Ukraine, because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much," Trump told reporters when asked whether he would attend a meeting with Putin and Xi to discuss Ukraine.
When asked in Oslo about such a summit, Zelenskyy said, "if the issue is about Ukraine, our future, it can be acceptable only when we are at the table of negotiations."
Sustained Russian Attacks
Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine, killing at least three people in the Kyiv region and injuring several others.
The bodies were discovered as emergency crews battled a fire at a production and storage facility outside the Ukrainian capital, Tymur Tkachenko, the region's military governor, wrote on Telegram.
In a separate attack, a Russian drone struck near the Kyiv-Odesa highway, killing three people and injuring four others, according to preliminary reports cited by the Kyiv regional prosecutor's office and regional authorities. The number of casualties was still verified.
Drone strikes were also reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in the Khmelnytskiy, Ternopil, and Lviv regions of western Ukraine.
Overnight, Russian forces attacked three energy facilities in the Odesa region, energy company DTEK reported on October 20, adding that more than 30,000 households remained without electricity following the attack.
Meanwhile, Telegram monitoring channels, citing local residents, reported that a diesel fuel storage tank caught fire after Ukrainian drones struck an oil facility in Russia's Tambov region.
The Russian military had not immediately confirmed the reported strike but said its air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones, including some over the Tambov region.
