Russia's Kremlin says Russia highly values the efforts of US negotiators, negotiators can inform Russian President Putin of the positions of Ukraine and European countries

• Hopes a meeting between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Putin can be arranged in Russia in the near future

Kremlin readouts praising the counterparty's negotiators are a standard fixture of track-one diplomacy and have historically signalled that a channel is alive rather than that positions have moved; the substantive tell in past episodes of this kind has been the sequencing of meetings, envoys first, then heads of state, not the tone of the praise. The actor here matters: Witkoff is an envoy operating outside the traditional diplomatic apparatus, and back-channel figures of that profile have tended to test positions and carry messages rather than conclude terms, so the meeting being sought is a preparatory step, not a decision point. The mention of relaying Ukrainian and European positions is the more interesting line; whether Russia accepts a framework shaped by both, rather than a bilateral US track, has been the fault line in comparable negotiation sequences, and European capitals being sidelined versus consulted has repeatedly been the dividing question. Rhetorical warmth of this kind has preceded both genuine openings and prolonged stalemates, so the language itself carries little signal; the precedent pattern is that front-month crude and European gas premia move on shifts in ceasefire probability, not on scheduling language. Worth watching are confirmation that the meeting is fixed, any readout naming agenda items, and whether Ukrainian and European officials are read into the channel in parallel. As Kremlin messaging, this is atmospherics until the calendar firms up.