Putin receives US officials in Ukraine peace talks

Top US negotiators met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in a high-stakes meeting happening as Moscow pressed battlefield advances.

Putin, who received Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and US special envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin, signalled earlier that his forces were ready to fight on to achieve Russia's initial war goals.

The meeting is a crucial moment for Ukraine in what could be a fraught week following days of frantic diplomacy kicked off by a unilateral US plan to bring peace, which has since been revised under pressure from Kyiv and its European backers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that any plan must actually end the war for good, and not just lead to a pause in the fighting that began with Moscow's offensive in February 2022.

Washington has said it is "optimistic" it can help end Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.

Kushner and Witkoff were to present Putin with the new version of US plan, which has been hammered out after the initial version raised fears in Kyiv and elsewhere in Europe that it made too many concessions to Moscow.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and the Kremlin's business envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, also took part in the meeting, according to a state TV broadcast.

After their Moscow visit, Kushner and Witkoff could go on to meet a Ukrainian delegation as soon as Wednesday, potentially in Brussels, a senior Kyiv official told AFP.