Peace not war is the focus now for Russia, US — Kremlin

The Kremlin said that the significance of the phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was that now Russia and the United States would speak about peace and not war.

"This is a powerful signal that we will now try to solve problems through dialogue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state TV Kremlin reporter Pavel Zarubin in a clip released on Sunday.

"Now we will talk about peace, not war."

Peskov said the first meeting between Putin and Trump had a special significance given current circumstances, adding that the Western sanctions would not prevent Russia-US talks as they could be "lifted as quickly as imposed".

On the other hand, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday ahead of talks between Russia and the United States in the Kingdom scheduled for next week.

Siluanov was speaking at an event called AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies, organised by the Saudi Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund.

US and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to start talks aimed at ending the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, a US lawmaker and a source familiar with the planning said on Saturday.

Separately, a woman was killed in Russia's Belgorod border region on Sunday when a Ukrainian drone struck her car, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that she died on the spot.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military reported that Russia launched 143 drones overnight, with the air force shooting down 95 and 46 failing to reach their targets, likely due to electronic countermeasures.