US Envoy Witkoff Arrives In St. Petersburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday for meetings with Russian officials, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Witkoff had previously sat down positively with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and presented ideas from the Russian side for ending the war, in the clearest public confirmation yet that Witkoff is serving as an active shuttle diplomat between Kyiv and Moscow simultaneously.

Witkoff sat down positively with Zelensky and gave ideas for an end to the war on the Russian side in St. Petersburg,

Rubio said, confirming the sequence of Witkoff’s diplomatic movements and describing the Zelensky meeting as positive.

The disclosure places a different frame on the proposed Trump-Xi-Putin trilateral summit that would exclude Ukraine. Witkoff’s meeting with Zelensky before traveling to St. Petersburg suggests Washington is maintaining a direct channel with Kyiv and presenting Russian positions to Zelensky even as the trilateral summit framework would formally exclude the Ukrainian president from the table. The Ukrainian ambassador to Iraq Ivan Dovhanych told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday that any decisions made without Ukraine’s participation will ultimately have to be accepted by the Ukrainian nation, not just its president.

Witkoff’s Dual Role

Witkoff has been one of the two primary American envoys conducting indirect negotiations with Iran throughout the conflict alongside Jared Kushner, including the September 22 UNGA sideline session with Iranian FM Araghchi through Qatari mediators in which Iran delivered its seven-day Hormuz reopening proposal. His simultaneous engagement on the Russia-Ukraine file underlines the Trump administration’s approach of using a small circle of trusted personal envoys across multiple simultaneous diplomatic tracks rather than routing everything through the State Department’s formal diplomatic machinery.

Trump said Monday he is negotiating with Russia on four simultaneous files: Ukraine, Iran, hostages, and diesel. Trump also confirmed he is ready to meet Putin and Xi at APEC in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19 primarily for denuclearization talks. The Graham Act Russia sanctions waiver Trump signed last Friday was described by Rubio as a test to gauge whether continued talks with Kyiv and Moscow can produce positive results and prevent another year of destruction.

The St. Petersburg location rather than Moscow is notable, as it is Putin’s home city and the site of several previous sensitive diplomatic encounters. No details about the specific Russian officials Witkoff is meeting have been disclosed.