Kremlin Says Putin Met With Trumps Envoy, Steve Witkoff

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.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Ti...