Kremlin sees progress as Trump's envoy meets Putin

US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow on Friday to discuss the US plan to end the war in Ukraine, and the Kremlin said the two sides' positions had moved closer.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who took part in the meeting, described it as constructive and very useful. "This conversation allowed Russia and the United States to further bring their positions closer together, not only on Ukraine but also on a number of other international issues," he told reporters.

"As for the Ukrainian crisis itself, the discussion focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine."

Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Shortly after the Moscow meeting ended, Trump said he had not been briefed on the talks but heard that his envoy and Putin had "a pretty good meeting."

Trump was speaking aboard Air Force One on his way to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was also expected to attend the funeral, although he said on Friday he was not certain he could make it.

In a later social media post, in which he complained that Zelenskiy had not yet signed a rare earths deal with Washington, Trump said work on a peace deal was going smoothly.

"SUCCESS seems to be in the future!" Trump wrote. There was no immediate comment from Witkoff.

A real estate billionaire, Witkoff has emerged as Washington's key interlocutor with Putin as Trump pushes for a deal to end the war.

His latest trip follows talks this week at which Ukrainian and European officials pushed back against some of the US proposals for how to settle the conflict, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.

Witkoff's meeting took place just hours after a car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer near Moscow, which the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv.