DOMINANT ANGLE
Rome views Witkoff's mission to Saint-Petersburg as an attempt to revive the diplomatic route after days of chaos between Westerners, while highlighting the vagueness of American proposals.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
According to Peskov, quoted by Tass via ANSA, the Witkoff-Putin meeting lasted approximately three hours and the Kremlin says it is ready to resume trilateral negotiations in mid-November.
- 02
The New York Times, as reported by ANSA, claims that Trump is seeking to get Kiev to accept territorial concessions in the Donbass.
- 03
Stephen Hubbard, an American sentenced to six years in prison for fighting alongside Kiev, was released on October 21 on Putin's orders (La Repubblica).
ANALYSIS
Rome, October 21, 2026. For the Italian press, Wednesday, October 21, is part of a sequence: Oslo, then St. Petersburg. La Repubblica recalls that after his Norwegian meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, the White House envoy was to present Vladimir Putin with "an updated proposal" to end the war. ANSA describes the talks in Oslo as "important and constructive": Zelensky and his European partners are seeking to turn the page on an open confrontation with the United States, and the Ukrainian president announces that the sharing of American intelligence "is working" again. Marco Rubio, from Mumbai, speaks of a "positive meeting, nothing unexpected or surprising".
The Italian agency tempers this relief, however. According to the New York Times, which it cites, Donald Trump is seeking to convince Kiev to accept an agreement including territorial concessions in the Donbass, and the lack of details on the content of the proposals does not help to dispel doubts about the Western plan. Jared Kushner participated in the Oslo discussions remotely.
In St. Petersburg, Witkoff is welcomed at Pulkovo Airport by presidential advisor Kirill Dmitriev. According to Dmitri Peskov, cited by Tass, the meeting with Putin lasted approximately three hours. Witkoff claims to have brought "several documents" describing approaches to a peaceful solution and asks Putin to review them later; Kushner joined by phone. Peskov assures that all proposals will be examined by the president, but "much depends on the Ukrainians". The Kremlin says it is ready to resume trilateral negotiations with Kiev and Washington in mid-November.
La Repubblica devotes a section to the release of Stephen Hubbard, an American sentenced to six years in prison for fighting alongside Kiev's forces, released that morning on Putin's orders. The newspaper places this event in the history of exchanges between Moscow and Washington, from the spies on the Berlin Bridge during the Cold War to the "diesel agreements".
The military context remains present: Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, two deaths in a drone strike near Kharkiv, and the slowdown of the military version of Starlink, which Rubio says Washington was not aware of. ANSA also notes that Zelensky says he is ready, on Fox News, to freeze the conflict on the current front line before seeking security guarantees.
