MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin held “substantive, constructive and extremely frank” talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Sunday.The talks on Saturday lasted three hours and 10 minutes and focused on the war in Ukraine as well as potential major Russian-US projects, state news agency TASS reported, citing Ushakov.Ushakov said Putin reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to continue working with the United States toward a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict.Putin also stressed what Moscow describes as the need to address the “root causes” of the war and discussed recent battlefield advances by Russian forces, expressing confidence that Russia would achieve its objectives.According to Ushakov, Witkoff and Kushner presented several ideas for a possible settlement and said they would take Putin’s assessments into account during their talks in Kyiv.He said Putin and US President Donald Trump would remain in direct contact, while negotiations through the US team would also continue.Witkoff and Kushner left Moscow following the meeting and are scheduled to visit Kyiv on Sunday.A White House official told Axios that the meeting was part of Trump’s efforts to end the war. The US delegation also included officials from the National Security Council and the State and Treasury departments.The two sides discussed “substantive plans” for the next steps, which are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, the official said.The US delegation was looking forward to “equally productive” meetings in Ukraine, the official added.
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