US President Donald Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war on his return to the White House but has said efforts to resolve the conflict have been one of his biggest disappointments.
The Izvestia newspaper said in a front-page story that the Kremlin had confirmed a pause in talks on Ukraine and that war in the Middle East could push Ukraine towards compromise.
"This is a situational pause, for obvious reasons," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the Izvestia report.
Peskov said that as soon as "our American partners" could pay more attention to Ukrainian affairs, Russia hoped that the pause could end and that a new round of talks could take place.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was time to end the pause and the US had sent signals it was ready to continue negotiations.
A Ukrainian negotiating team was already on its way to the US for weekend talks.
"There has been a pause in the talks. It is time to end that, and we will do everything so that the talks can be truly meaningful," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
"The Ukrainian team ... is already on the way and we expect a meeting on Saturday in the United States."
It was not immediately clear what form the new talks would take and who would be taking part.
Izvestia said that talks on economic and investment co-operation with the United States, led by presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, would continue.
Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its neighbour in 2022, held talks in Turkey last year and have conducted sessions with US mediation in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year.
They remain far apart on Russia's demand for Ukraine to cede control of the whole of its Donetsk region.
In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia's terms for ending the war were that Ukraine officially abandon its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance and withdraw entirely from four regions Russia claims as its own.
Ukraine has questioned Putin's commitment to ending the war and says it will not cede land that Russia has failed to capture.
