Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with US envoys in Moscow lasted more than three hours, and the Kremlin said the talks were very useful, but there was no indication that any breakthrough had been achieved.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow on Saturday as part of Washington's new attempt to revive talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
A White House official told ABC News that Witkoff and Kushner discussed "significant next steps" with Putin, and the US hopes to have an equally productive meeting with Ukrainian officials in Kiev today.
At the talks in Moscow on "proposals to bring peace to this conflict", along with Kushner and Witkoff, there were other officials from the US National Security Council, the State Department and the Treasury Department.
The talks lasted three hours and ten minutes and were held in an informal setting, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said earlier in a statement, reported the Russian news agency TASS.
Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said that Vitkoff and Kushner had put forward a number of ideas about possible directions for reaching a solution, but he did not specify which ideas they were, Reuters reports.
He said Putin told the two American envoys that Russia was making real progress on the battlefield and was confident it would achieve its goals, while emphasizing the need to address all root causes of the conflict.
"The Russian side provided a clear and comprehensive assessment of the situation developing during the special military operation," he said.
Ushakov described the talks as "substantive, constructive, extremely open and conducted in a spirit of trust" in a statement after the talks concluded.
"The talks went beyond a mere exchange of views on resolving the Ukrainian crisis. Economic issues and potential large, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects were discussed in quite some detail," Ushakov said.
Overall, he added, it can be said that the negotiations were timely and very beneficial for both sides.
A White House official told Reuters that the talks were substantive and that next steps would be announced in the coming weeks.
Witkoff and Kushner, who were in Moscow for the first time since January on behalf of President Donald Trump, did not comment on the talks. They left Moscow shortly after the meeting.
Ahead of the meeting, US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian officials indicated that Vitkoff and Kushner were once again coming up with a proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine. According to ABC, it is not clear whether the new proposal is significantly different from what was previously offered.
Putin has previously indicated that his demands for territory in Ukraine remain unchanged, and this is unacceptable to Kiev.
Ushakov said that Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump will continue personal contacts, the Russian news agency TASS reported. Ushakov also said that work with American negotiators Vitkoff and Kushner will continue.
TASS reports that Vitkoff and Kouchner, on their way to Ukraine where they are to talk to Ukrainian officials, landed in Rzeszow, Poland, last night.
According to a Polish airport official, their plane landed at 1:31 a.m. local time tonight, and they will likely continue their journey by other means of transport, most likely by rail, TASS added.
The talks are taking place at a time when both sides are carrying out heavy airstrikes, and Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have agreed to pause strikes on major cities while the talks take place.
Washington's efforts to end that war have lost momentum as American attention has been focused on the Iran war for the past six months. The last time Witkoff and Kushner, who is the US president's son-in-law, were in Moscow was in January, when they also met with Putin in the Kremlin, the AP reports.
The expected visit of US officials to Kiev today is the first in the peace process, Ukrainian officials said.
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