Zelenskyy Brings Expanded Delegation to Oslo: Who Will Attend Talks with US and Europe

On October 20, 2026, a new round of diplomatic consultations aimed at resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will take place in Oslo. The Ukrainian side will be represented at the meeting by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, according to confirmed reports, will not act alone: several key Ukrainian officials have joined the delegation. The talks are scheduled tentatively for the afternoon and will represent one of the highest-level diplomatic contacts involving Kyiv, Washington, and European capitals in recent times.

Composition of the Ukrainian Delegation and Meeting Format

According to information received from Norwegian authorities and reported by Reuters, Ukraine submitted an official request to include its representatives in consultations with the US President’s special envoys. The government of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre confirmed that negotiations involving Zelenskyy, US representatives, and European partners will indeed take place in Oslo. The specific list of Ukrainian officials accompanying the president has not been fully disclosed in open sources, but the very fact of expanding the delegation indicates that Kyiv views the meeting as a platform for detailed elaboration of its negotiating position rather than a symbolic presence.

The US Side: Witkoff in Person, Kushner Remotely

From Washington, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steven Witkoff will arrive in Oslo in person. Over recent months, he has been coordinating the American diplomatic line on the Ukrainian track. His colleague Jared Kushner, who is also part of the peaceful settlement special envoy team, will participate in the talks remotely; according to the Norwegian government, the reason is illness, as Kushner has contracted the flu. Despite the different formats of attendance, both American representatives will be engaged in discussing key agenda items.

The European Dimension: Stubb and Gahr Støre

President Alexander Stubb of Finland and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway, who is hosting the meeting on his territory, will join the consultations in Oslo. The presence of the Finnish leader in the negotiation process emphasizes that the Scandinavian-Finnish track remains one of the active channels of European diplomacy on the Ukrainian issue. For Norway, hosting consultations of this level in its own capital serves as an additional signal that Oslo is positioning itself as a neutral platform for multilateral contacts at a time when traditional European venues (Brussels, Paris, London) have already exhausted part of their diplomatic resource.

Goals of the Negotiations and Further Trajectory

The officially stated goal of the meeting is to continue diplomatic efforts toward settling the Russian-Ukrainian war and shifting the negotiation process onto a more constructive path. According to Axios, following the conclusion of the consultations in Oslo, Steven Witkoff plans to travel to Russia, where he intends to meet with Vladimir Putin and present ideas developed during consultations with the Ukrainian and European sides. Thus, the Oslo meeting acts as an intermediate link in the chain «Kyiv — Washington — Brussels/Helsinki — Moscow», and its outcomes will directly influence the package of proposals the American special envoy will present to the Russian leadership.

Context: Why Now

The choice of Oslo as a venue and the expansion of the Ukrainian delegation to include several officials indicate that the parties are striving for a more structured negotiation format than previous bilateral calls or videoconferences. For Kyiv, the participation of an expanded team allows for advance alignment of positions on military, economic, and political aspects of the settlement, while for Washington, it provides a more detailed package of proposals from the Ukrainian side before Witkoff brings them to Moscow. Kushner’s remote participation due to the flu will likely not alter the substantive part of the negotiations, yet it deprives the meeting of one element of personal pressure typically provided by the presence of two high-ranking American negotiators in the same room.