Contacts with US intensifying: Kremlin

'Empty words'

"For now, it's nothing more than empty words," he added.

In the meantime, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also said the United States must make the first move in improving ties with Russia after years of failing to listen to the Kremlin and pursuing misguided policies intended to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Moscow.

Ryabkov also said it was wrong to base a foreign policy on the need to "come to an agreement with the White House at any price".

Trump said on Sunday that members of his administration were already in talks with Russian authorities about ending the conflict in Ukraine.

The remarks were made as Putin said last month that he was ready to meet with Trump to discuss the Ukraine crisis, as well as other "areas of interest to both the US and Russia".

In a commentary on the Foreign Ministry website, Ryabkov said the Kremlin had long sought to be a partner of the West, "but no one was listening or, in theory, wanted to listen.

"And that is because the underlying aim was to weaken the geopolitical rival to the maximum," he said.

Ryabkov said Russia was open to dialogue and ready to reach an agreement through hard bargaining while taking into account of realities on the ground, "so it is up to Trump and his team to make a decision".

Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, quoted by the RIA news agency, described the contacts between the White House and the Kremlin as "very preliminary". RIA said Kelin told ITV News that the discussions were "only to assess positions, to determine the boundaries of what is possible".

Zelensky, in his nightly video address, spoke of further diplomatic efforts with Washington to advance peace efforts.

"We are significantly intensifying our contacts with the American administration," he said. "And we also have quite meaningful contacts with other partners."

As a response to comments by Trump who said earlier on Monday that he wanted to gain access to Ukraine's valuable rare earth materials as a condition for continuing support for its fight against Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for collaboration with partner countries on projects worth billions of dollars not just in mining rare earth elements, but also in energy and construction sectors — to help rebuild the country.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Wednesday the success of its latest mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, which resulted in the exchange of 300 prisoners of war.

According to a statement by UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the swap included 150 prisoners from Ukraine and 150 from Russia.

With this latest mediation, the total number of prisoners exchanged between the two countries under UAE's mediation efforts has reached 2,883, the ministry said.

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that it launched an overnight attack on an airfield in Russia's Krasnodar region, causing explosions and a fire. Russian forces use the airfield to store and launch drones to attack Ukraine and maintain aircraft carrying out missions in Ukraine's southern regions, the military added. Russia has made no response to the development.

Xinhua and Agencies contributed to this story.