MOSCOW (Reuters) - Preparations for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump are at an "advanced stage", Russian state news agency RIA quoted a senior lawmaker as saying on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have yet to discuss a possible meeting, CNN quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. It cited Peskov as saying there had been no initial contacts between the two leaders about whether such a meeting was needed or where and how it might take place if it did happen.

Former U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul and investigative journalist Roman Anin dissect Trump and Putin’s shared traits, warn against rushed Ukraine negotiations and underscore the critical role of journalists in countering an era of misinformation.

That will take some doing. Putin remains uninterested in peace talks as long as Russian troops continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s east, albeit at a slow pace, and while Ukrainian forces hold seized territory in the Kursk region inside Russia, according to John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and other former officials.

The Kremlin said on Friday there had been a lot of inaccurate reports on U.S. plans for ending the Ukraine war and called for patience as speculation swirled around the timing of a possible meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

US allies expect President Donald Trump’s administration to present a long-awaited plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference in Germany next week, according to people familiar with the matter.