That will take some doing. Putin remains uninterested in peace talks as long as Russian troops continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s east, albeit at a slow pace, and while Ukrainian forces hold seized territory in the Kursk region inside Russia, according to John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and other former officials.

The Kremlin said on Friday there had been a lot of inaccurate reports on U.S. plans for ending the Ukraine war and called for patience as speculation swirled around the timing of a possible meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to have direct peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

President Donald Trump says his administration has already had “very serious” discussions with Russia about its war in Ukraine and that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could soon take “significant” action toward ending the grinding conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have yet to discuss a possible meeting, CNN quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. It cited Peskov as saying there had been no initial contacts between the two leaders about whether such a meeting was needed or where and how it might take place if it did happen.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, had a "thorough discussion" with Ukraine's ambassador to Washington in their first official meeting on Thursday, the ambassador said.