US President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Saturday for three hours of closed-door talks, before heading to Kyiv on Sunday.

The White House said the two men discussed "substantive plans" for next steps to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting was held at Putin's official residence in the heart of the Russian capital.

Both sides offered broadly positive assessments without going into specifics. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described the talks as "constructive, extremely frank" and "highly useful," while giving no indication that a breakthrough had been reached.

"The talks were not limited to an exchange of views on resolving the Ukrainian crisis - economic issues and potential major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects were discussed in considerable detail," Ushakov said.

He also said "note was made of the Russian army's tangible advances in the combat zone" and that there was acknowledgement that talks needed to address "the root causes of the conflict."

As the Kremlin meeting was under way, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready for "a substantive conversation."

Witkoff and Kushner have visited Russia several times. Their onward journey to Kyiv raised logistical questions, as Ukraine's airspace has been closed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The talks come amid an intensification of aerial attacks by both sides in recent months. Ukraine has said it has struggled to repel ballistic missile attacks due to a shortage of interceptor missiles, while Kyiv has focused its own strikes on Russian economic infrastructure, notably oil installations.

Despite an escalation of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, Russian ground forces have made slow advances for most of the conflict, incurring significant casualties. Russia still controls approximately one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, areas it seized in 2022.