President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, in Moscow late Thursday and now expects to talk to President Trump about a possible cease-fire in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters on Friday that there was “certainly” reason to feel “cautious optimism” about the prospects for a settlement to the war, after a flurry of diplomacy in recent days. He was echoing similarly optimistic remarks made by Michael Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, late Thursday.
The comments from Mr. Peskov signaled that Russia was eager to keep negotiating with the United States over Ukraine.
On Thursday, before the meeting with Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Putin showed that he was in no hurry to accept the offer of a 30-day truce made by Ukraine and the United States this week. Mr. Putin told a news conference that he was open to the proposal, but suggested that he would seek to negotiate over a slew of issues — such as Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine — that could delay any deal or make it impossible.
Mr. Peskov said on Friday that Mr. Witkoff had “presented additional information to the Russian side” and that Mr. Putin “passed along information and additional signals for President Trump.”
But Mr. Peskov suggested that the outcome of the diplomatic back-and-forth would only become clear after Mr. Witkoff had briefed Mr. Trump, and after the Russian and American leaders had spoken by phone. Mr. Peskov added that the timing of a Trump-Putin call was yet to be determined. The two leaders are last known to have spoken on Feb. 12.
“After Mr. Witkoff passes along all of the information he received in Moscow to his head of state — we’ll determine the timing of the conversation after that,” Mr. Peskov said. “There’s an understanding on both sides that such a conversation is necessary.”
Mr. Peskov’s comments were the latest indication that Mr. Putin is seemingly trying to balance a desire to avoid upsetting Mr. Trump with his effort to force wide-ranging concessions from the West and from Ukraine. While Mr. Trump says he wants to end the war as quickly as possible, Mr. Putin appears confident that he has time on his side and that an unconditional cease-fire would benefit Ukraine.
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Witkoff or from the broader Trump administration about the meeting with Mr. Putin. Mr. Witkoff, who is officially the president’s Middle East envoy, has also taken on a key role as an interlocutor with Russia — spending three hours meeting with Mr. Putin last month as he finalized a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States.
Ukraine has already agreed to support the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, but only if Russia does the same. On Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Mr. Putin in his news conference had set so many conditions “that nothing will work out at all or that it will not work out for as long as possible.”
But Mr. Waltz, the U.S. national security adviser, later said on Fox News that the White House had “some cautious optimism” about the prospects for a cease-fire. Mr. Witkoff, he said, was “bringing things back for us to evaluate and for President Trump to make decisions on next steps.”
Referring to Mr. Putin’s news conference on Thursday, Mr. Waltz said, “Of course, both sides are going to have their demands, and of course both sides are going to have to make some compromises.”
