Lily has reported on the Iran war, Latin America and domestic events. You can contact her at lily.shanagher@telegraph.co.uk or via X @lilyshanagher 7:56am BST Steve Witkoff will present Vladimir Putin with a new Ukraine peace plan on Wednesday following a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Donald Trump’s envoy arrived at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, where he was greeted by Kirill Dmitriev, a Kremlin envoy.

The White House reportedly hopes Putin will show more willingness to compromise after the US president lifted sanctions on Russian diesel sales as part of a pro-Kremlin pivot that has increased tensions between Washington and Kyiv and its allies in recent weeks.

The Trump administration hoped the new proposal would “create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations”, an official told Axios. Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, will also participate virtually.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said talks with Mr Zelensky and European leaders in Norway on Tuesday had been “positive” and had provided ideas to present to Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelensky and Steve Witkoff embrace as they meet in Oslo“It was positive, nothing unexpected, nothing surprising, and he’ll now, armed with those ideas, be able to go to St Petersburg and share them with the Russian side – and let’s see if we can make some progress,” Mr Rubio said.

The official who spoke to Axios said Kyiv brought new ideas and proposals that were discussed in detail at the meeting, and the parties made “meaningful progress”. After the Oslo talks, Mr Zelensky thanked Washington for the resumption of US intelligence on Russian strikes.

“We are thankful that intelligence works,” Mr Zelensky told reporters, describing the early warnings as “very, very important for our people, for children, adults, civilians”.

The Ukrainian president also said he agreed to cease strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow reciprocated, something Mr Kushner was very “direct” about and pressed for during the meeting, a source said.

Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday the next step should be a trilateral meeting between him, Putin and Mr Trump, and dismissed the suggestion of talks between the US, Russia and China.

Mr Trump said he thought “Russia would like to get it done”, but again doubted Mr Zelensky’s willingness to end the war.

“If he does not, it’s gonna be a very bad thing,” the US president said. “We want Zelensky to make a deal... If they don’t make a deal, it’s just gonna get worse [for Ukraine].”Mr Trump’s embrace of Putin has prompted anger and frustration among the US’s traditional allies, with fears rising again that the US and Russia could arrange a backroom deal ending in Kyiv’s capitulation.

Mr Zelensky himself dropped his usual tone of restraint when he called Mr Trump “weak” for seeking to lower rising fuel costs in the US before the midterm elections by buying Russian oil.

But Putin has eagerly taken advantage of this warm spirit, offering to set up a trilateral meeting with Mr Trump and Xi Jinping next month to negotiate ending the war.

The US president told reporters he “would do it”. He added on Monday that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine”, despite Moscow killing six people including two children in a daytime drone strike on a park the same day.

Russia has also continued to strike critical energy facilities across Ukraine, targeting around 30 with more than a dozen ballistic missiles the night before, despite a short-lived “energy ceasefire” announced unexpectedly by Mr Trump.