Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, in Oslo with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. US envoy Steve Witkoff was in the room. Jared Kushner joined by video. This is a press conference after a diplomatic round, not a peace treaty. No one announced a signed deal.

Støre called the talks “good and constructive” and said they had been necessary “after the events of last week.” American and European teams, together with Ukraine, had worked through the key files — Ukraine’s security, a postwar prosperity plan, territorial questions, sanctions and the European security order after any peace. “This is work that is still ongoing… but today we have made significant progress together.” Progress claimed by the host is not a signed text.

In his introduction Støre repeated Norway’s line: support for Ukraine’s legitimate defence against military aggression, and “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” Real effort was needed, he said, to move diplomacy in the right direction. Those are the host’s political positions, not armistice clauses.

Støre said that on 21 October Witkoff flies to St Petersburg, where he is to meet the Russian leadership and pass on ideas and proposals that European and American colleagues have been working on, “perhaps lay the groundwork for a meeting at the leaders’ level.” The flight is announced, not taken on the evening of the press conference. A leaders’ meeting remains a possibility, not a date in the diary.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had “several clear ideas” on how to reach peace, that it was united with its European partners, and that it wanted the Americans to convey those ideas to the Russians. One important idea, he added, was a possible trilateral meeting of leaders on issues that “only leaders can resolve.” On Witkoff’s trip: “Let’s see what Putin has to say.” Territorial questions, he repeated, belong at a high level. He did not present an agreed map.

Stubb spoke of “quite a lot of noise” in public and of a process that, at the technical level, he feels is moving. There is, he said, a common position; the next steps are about how to get there. “Peace requires patience. But unfortunately, war does not wait.” He called the day a step in the right direction. He did not announce a ceasefire.

Kushner was on video, not in the room. After the press conference a dinner was announced with national-security advisers from the EU, NATO, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy; the dinner’s results are not part of this article. In parallel, Sergey Lavrov said Russia would see what Witkoff and Kushner proposed, but that there would be no political concessions. That is a reaction from Moscow, not a point in the Oslo communiqué. Until Wednesday’s flight, the closed facts are the meeting, who was there, and what was said at the press conference — not a peace agreement.

Image: Government Quarter, Oslo, 15 June 2026, Premeditated, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The government quarter, not Tuesday’s press room.

Sources consulted: The Prime Minister's introduction at the press conference with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Finnish President Alexander Stubb — regjeringen.no; What was discussed in Norway: Witkoff to travel to St. Petersburg after meeting Zelenskyy and other leaders — LIGA.net; Zelenskyy calls for trilateral talks with Putin and Trump after meeting with US delegation in Oslo — Euronews.