Russia’s leader, President Vladimir Putin, met President Donald J. Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, at the Kremlin on Thursday. Putin asked them to pass along his thanks to President Trump for setting up contacts between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported this, citing the state news agency TASS.

In the open part of the meeting, Putin noted progress on humanitarian issues involving Ukraine, Kommersant reported. He asked the envoys to thank first lady Melania Trump for organizing a humanitarian mission in Aleshki.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, also took part, along with presidential aides Vladimir Medinsky and Yuri Ushakov. The Kremlin announced on its website that the meeting had begun on Thursday.

The meeting came after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, with the United States acting as the go-between for American, Russian and Ukrainian teams. ABC News reported that these were the first such three-way talks since February. The talks ended Wednesday with a deal on a large prisoner exchange, according to the Associated Press.

Kushner wrote on X that the exchange “will reunite families, build trust, and create momentum toward peace.”

“Bringing Ukraine and Russia back together for the first trilateral talks since February was an important step,” Kushner wrote. “The discussions were serious, detailed, and frank.”

Witkoff and Kushner were expected to travel to Dublin to meet Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ABC News reported.