He is expected to give a press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally, later Thursday.
American and Russian officials have this week been talking behind the scenes. And President Donald Trump has dispatched his envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia, while threatening sanctions for the Kremlin.
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
Despite this threat, Trump has asked few concessions from the Kremlin, while openly suggesting Ukraine will have to agree to many of Putin’s demands.
The White House said Witkoff would be in Russia this week but declined to say when. Russia’s state-run TASS news agency cited the Flightradar tracking website saying that Witkoff’s plane had crossed into Russian airspace Thursday morning.
“Indeed, the negotiators are flying in, indeed, contacts are scheduled.” Peskov told reporters Thursday.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he added. “We’ll tell you later.”
The suggestion from talks in Saudi Arabia of an interim 30-day ceasefire has been welcomed by European leaders. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned them in his nightly address Wednesday about Russia’s history of breaking numerous truces.
“The key is our partners’ ability to ensure that Russia is ready not to deceive, but to truly end the war,” he said.
Ukrainian officials and citizens say they want peace, but only alongside security guarantees that ensure the Kremlin does not attack again.
“I think 99% of Ukrainians wants the war to end in a fair way,” Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv Oblast, told NBC News on Wednesday. “We want some guarantees that it will not come back in a couple of years.”
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow contributed.
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