MOSCOW

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was the first direct exchange of views between Moscow and Washington on the settlement plan suggested by US President Donald Trump.

"Some suggestions were accepted; others were deemed unacceptable," Peskov said at a press briefing in Moscow.

"It is important to note that such a direct exchange of views took place yesterday for the first time. Some suggestions were accepted; others were deemed unacceptable. This is a normal working process of searching for compromises," he said.

Asked about how many meetings are needed, Peskov said that Russian representatives are ready to meet with their American counterparts as many times as necessary to achieve a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

Peskov denied that Putin had rejected the US peace plan, calling such statements "incorrect." According to him, expert-level work is ongoing and may eventually lead to contact between the two presidents.

A telephone conversation between Putin and Trump "is possible at any moment, and it can be organized promptly," he added.

"It is at the expert level that certain results should be achieved, which will then serve as the basis for contacts at the top level," Peskov explained.

Commenting on the possibility of publishing confidential points of discussion in the media, the spokesman said that the Kremlin believes negotiations with the US on a Ukrainian settlement should be conducted quietly, and the US side adheres to the same principle.

Citing the need for discretion, he skipped a question about whether the Russian side documented corrections to the settlement on paper.

"We deliberately won’t add anything. The quieter these negotiations are conducted, the greater their productivity. We will adhere to this principle and hope that our American counterparts will also abide by it," he said.

Peskov also avoided answering about the new documents relating to the US peace plan for Ukraine, allegedly brought by Witkoff and Kushner, and how they can be characterized.

Commenting on the EU position, the Kremlin spokesman said Europe continues to act in line with attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

"Europeans are not participating in the process because they remain fixated on the idea of delivering a strategic defeat to Russia. They continue to act in this vein, and they are deeply mistaken in this regard," he emphasized.

Addressing the statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the EU is completely abandoning Russian gas, Peskov said that Europe, by refusing Russian energy resources, will become dependent on much more expensive gas and lose its leading positions in the global economy.