By Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay and Tom Balmforth
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON/LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel to Norway this week for the next round of negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Two of the people said they expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to attend the meetings.
The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the schedule is tentative and could change.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The meetings come amid increased tensions between Washington and Kyiv. Ukraine alleges that the speed of its Starshield military-grade satellite system, owned by SpaceX, was reduced by a US policy decision and that the US has limited intelligence sharing and delayed delivery of Patriot air defense missiles for which other countries paid.
“All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video posted on Monday on Telegram.
One of the people familiar with the matter said that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has yet to authorize delivery of the latest package of US weaponry purchased by NATO allies under a program known as PURL, but could not confirm that it included Patriots.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. US officials have denied Ukraine’s allegations.
Trump has accused Zelenskiy of refusing to hold peace talks with Russia and in his latest broadside said on Monday that maybe it was time that the Ukrainian leader “get somebody else to negotiate.”
Ukraine uses Starshield for battlefield communications and drone operations. The US Defense Department holds the Starshield contract with SpaceX but allows Ukraine to use the system.
Ukrainian officials have said the throttling of Starshield led to civilian deaths because the military was unable to intercept Russian strikes. Reuters reported last week that the order to limit Starshield came from within the White House.
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, said on X last week that because Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government, any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military or the president.
(Reporting by Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Don Durfee, Daniel Wallis and Rosalba O’Brien)
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