President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the war in Ukraine, despite inconclusive talks in Moscow that produced no breakthrough. U.S. officials are now preparing for follow-up discussions with Kyiv’s top negotiator.

Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Putin for hours in the Kremlin, seeking progress on halting Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. But the meeting ended without agreement.

The Kremlin said afterwards that it found parts of the U.S. proposal unacceptable, even though the plan includes Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region it still holds nearly four years after Russia’s invasion.

“I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin,” Trump told an AFP reporter who asked about the talks. He later described the dialogue as “very good.”

Trump cautioned that it was too early to judge the outcome of the effort “because it does take two to tango.”

Pressed on whether his envoys saw signs that Putin truly wanted to halt the invasion, Trump replied: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”

Kyiv to follow up

Trump added that Ukraine “pretty well” backed the U.S. proposal, though he argued Kyiv should have done so earlier, citing a tense Oval Office meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.

Witkoff and Kushner are set to meet top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov in Florida on Thursday, two U.S. officials told AFP, in a follow-up to the Kremlin talks.

Kremlin cites battlefield gains

While the White House had voiced optimism ahead of the Moscow meeting, Russian officials said no compromise had been reached and that further negotiations were needed.

The Kremlin said recent battlefield gains by Russian forces strengthened Moscow’s hand and that Ukraine’s ties with NATO remained a major sticking point.

Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine accelerated last month, and Putin has said repeatedly that Moscow is ready to keep fighting to seize the rest of the territory it claims unless Kyiv agrees to surrender it.

“The progress and nature of the negotiations were influenced by the successes of the Russian army on the battlefield in recent weeks,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who participated in the talks, told reporters, including AFP.

Moscow stressed it was not accurate to say Putin rejected the U.S. plan entirely. Officials said Russia remained open to diplomacy despite Putin’s warning earlier this week that Moscow was prepared to fight Europe if it wanted war.

“We are still ready to meet as many times as is needed to reach a peace settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Pressure on Moscow

In Kyiv, Zelensky said a window for peace had emerged but insisted that pressure on Moscow must continue.

“The world now clearly feels that there is an opportunity to end the war, and the current activity in negotiations must be supported by pressure on Russia,” he said in his evening address.

The new diplomatic push comes as NATO moves to buy hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. weapons for Ukraine.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said it was encouraging to see peace talks underway, but stressed that the alliance must ensure “Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going.”

Fears of deal without Europe

Russian troops continue to grind forward across the front line against outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces. Earlier this week, Moscow claimed it had captured the strategic city of Pokrovsk, though a Ukrainian army unit said urban combat was still ongoing.

European governments fear Washington and Moscow could strike agreements without them. Several have spent recent weeks pushing to amend the U.S. plan to avoid forcing Kyiv into what they see as capitulation.