U.S. envoys met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway on Tuesday, as kyiv scrambled to respond to a U.S. pressure campaign that has been coupled with measures aimed at courting the Kremlin. President Donald Trump’s negotiators, son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, have so far had little success in finding a diplomatic solution to the war. Their latest meeting comes with Washington’s support in doubt, as kyiv accused the United States of withdrawing crucial support for its defense against Russia, a suggestion that Secretary of State Marco Rubio called “scandalous.” Witkoff was scheduled to meet Zelenskyy in Oslo, and Kushner would join by video conference, the Norwegian government previously said. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will also join the talks, he added. U.S. and Ukrainian officials were expected to meet in Norway this week for another round of negotiations, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News, as a series of recent actions by Trump on behalf of Russia left both Congress and U.S. allies questioning U.S. mediation efforts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he hoped Trump’s envoys could hold a meeting in Russia “in the near future,” although he gave no firm indication as to when that might be. Zelenskyy met with Witkoff and Kushner in kyiv last month. Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty ImagesTrump waived sanctions and agreed to a diesel deal with Russia, in an apparent bid to lower fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections. On Monday he called on Zelenskyy to “get someone else to negotiate,” his latest rebuke to the Ukrainian president. Trump also appeared to downplay the impact of Russian attacks on Ukraine, a near-daily reality for the past four and a half years that has killed dozens of civilians and leveled cities. “Russia, frankly, has been good to Ukraine,” Trump told reporters. “They haven’t been doing much.” It was the last public sign of his move away from Ukraine. kyiv said it had once again received no early warning from the United States before the capital was attacked by Russian ballistic missiles on Sunday, the third time in recent days. In addition to withholding intelligence, Ukraine said it still faced speed restrictions on Starshield, the military version of the SpaceX service, without any explanation from the United States. “All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to curb support for us,” Zelenskyy said Monday in a virtual speech to a bipartisan congressional delegation. He also said the United States was delaying the delivery of crucial ballistic missile interceptors and that Ukraine has almost run out of supplies. Zelenskyy said earlier Tuesday that he had “a substantive conversation” with Rubio, focusing on missile interceptors, early warning of ballistic attacks and Starshield restrictions. He thanked Rubio and “everyone in the United States who supports fair approaches.” Men carry away the body of a one-year-old girl killed by a Russian drone strike outside Kharkiv on Monday while she was sitting in her stroller. Sofia Gatilova/Reuters Rubio later told reporters that he told Zelenskyy in the 45-minute call that nothing had changed in US support for Ukraine. “Nothing is deliberately denied to Ukraine,” he added, speaking at the start of a trip to India. When it comes to missile interceptors, Rubio said the United States has to strike a delicate balance between its obligations to other partners and its own requirements when it comes to what he called “the most in-demand product” in the defense industry right now. “When a country doesn’t get interceptors from the United States, it’s not because we deny it,” he added. “We also have our own needs.” Ukrainian officials, including Zelenskyy, have made clear their accusation that the United States has imposed restrictions that have disrupted military operations and hampered Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian missiles, making attacks deadlier. “That’s outrageous, that’s outrageous, that’s just not true. That’s not accurate,” Rubio said Tuesday. Officials in the eastern Kharkiv region on Monday shared images of a dead child in a stroller, a A one-year-old girl, they said, was killed along with her mother in a Russian attack on a public park in the region. “The world has enough strength to stop the war. That strength must finally be used against the murderers,” Zelenskyy said in a post denouncing the attack.
