Putin says Europe is blocking US efforts to secure peace in Ukraine

"They are on the side of war," Putin said of the European powers.

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Witkoff, on his sixth trip to Moscow this year, was expected to present Putin with an updated version of a US peace proposal drafted with input from a senior Russian official and reworked to make it more acceptable to Kyiv.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was "awaiting signals" from the US delegation after its meeting with Putin, in an intense round of shuttle diplomacy that the Trump administration has claimed is its best chance yet of bringing an end to the war.

But there remains scepticism that Russia is ready to accept any concessions, rather than continue the war and await a further breakdown in relations between the Trump White House and its European allies.

"I am ready to receive all the signals and ready for a meeting with President Trump," Zelenskyy posted on X. "Everything depends on today's discussions." Several US media outlets reported that Zelenskyy was expected to meet Witkoff and Kushner in Europe after the meeting.

A short video feed from the Kremlin showed the two small delegations sitting on opposite sides of an oval white table, with Putin seated by his advisers Kirill Dmitriev and Yuri Ushakov. Putin asked Witkoff and Kushner about a short tour of Moscow they had taken before the meeting, and Witkoff called it a "magnificent city." The feed then cut out.