Putin-Witkoff meeting useful, constructive, substantive, lasted for 5 hours - Kremlin aide

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff lasted for five hours and was useful and substantive, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

"The meeting of our president with two representatives of U.S. President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner [...] It was a rather useful, constructive and quite substantive meeting, and it lasted for five hours, not five minutes," Ushakov told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting between Putin and Witkoff gave a chance to discuss in detail the prospects for further work on settling the Ukrainian crisis, Ushakov said.

"It was an opportunity to discuss in detail the prospects for further joint work on a lasting peace settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," Ushakov told reporters after the meeting.

Russia and the United States have agreed not to disclose the essence of  the negotiations, Ushakov said.

"We have agreed with the U.S. counterparts that we will not disclose the essence of these negotiations. It was a non-public meeting," Ushakov told the press after the talks.

The U.S. representatives said they would personally inform Trump about the outcome of negotiations with Putin, he said.

However, Ushakov said that possible economic cooperation between Russia and the United States was also discussed at the meeting, and the need for a real desire to achieve that was noted.

"Huge prospects for the future economic interaction between both countries were discussed. A lot was said about it during previous meetings, but it was stressed this time that if we really want to cooperate, and there are huge opportunities for doing so, then we should show a real desire to achieve that," Ushakov told reporters.

"Both Moscow and Washington should demonstrate this desire," he said.

Russia and the United States agreed to stay in contact on various levels, Ushakov said.

"We have agreed to stay in contact with the Americans on the level of envoys, aides and other representatives," Ushakov told reporters.