Ukraine settlement, economic ties in focus as Putin hosts US envoy Witkoff in St. Petersburg

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff began their meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, with the Ukraine conflict, energy supplies and prospects for restoring economic cooperation discussed in opening remarks.

Opening the meeting, Putin said Russia was interested in restoring economic cooperation with the US and was ready to supply larger quantities of fertilizers to the US market.

He said diesel prices had fallen by 5-6% following the Russian-US agreement on diesel supplies.

Putin said he was interested in Trump's assessment of the situation surrounding Iran and that Russia was ready to help resolve the conflict.

Putin added that Trump emphasized the need to end the Ukraine conflict during their latest telephone conversation in order to stop further loss of life.

Witkoff described Tuesday's talks on Ukraine in Oslo as "productive," saying progress had been made.

"There is substantial groundwork in place to move toward ending the conflict in Ukraine," he said.

Witkoff also thanked Putin on behalf of Trump for the agreement on diesel fuel supplies.

The US envoy expressed hope that Putin would consider resuming trilateral negotiations involving Russia, the US and Ukraine, where technical issues could be discussed.