Moscow described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Friday talks with US special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff “constructive and quite useful” — as President Trump’s threat to abandon efforts to end the Ukraine war looms large.

The talks lasted for three hours following Putin’s open-armed welcome of Witkoff, photos show. Witkoff mirrored Putin’s wide grin, greeting him like an old friend.

The two met to hammer out a proposed peace plan to end the bloodshed in Ukraine, but it wasn’t immediately clear Friday if an agreement was reached.

President Trump, however, suggested the talks were encouraging.  

“Work on the overall Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly,” Trump crowed on Truth Social.

“SUCCESS seems to be in the future!”

Russia has indicated it would welcome the US walking away, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday saying that the country would be open to “negotiations in a bilateral format with Ukraine.”

Still, Moscow has kept up its brutal assault on Ukrainian civilians this week despite the pressure to reach peace, killing another three innocent civilians in overnight drone attacks. 

It was an apparent rebuke of Trump’s rare criticism of Putin on Thursday, when he told the Russian leader to “STOP” his continued assaults on Ukraine as the US attempts to negotiate an agreement.

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,” Trump raged in a Truth Social post after Russia launched its deadliest attack on Ukraine in almost a year Wednesday night.

The barrage killed at least 12 civilians, including two children from the same family.

“Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!” Trump added.

Meanwhile, some insiders and experts have questioned why Trump would threaten to drop his efforts to achieve peace without first following through on threats to sanction Russia — or otherwise apply tangible pressure in any way.

“Where is the ‘strength’ in ‘peace through strength’?” one former official from Trump’s first administration told The Post. “He’s strong on Ukraine, but nothing for Russia?”

“The Russia ‘collusion’ was a hoax in Trump 1,” another added. “But Trump 2.0, I’m not so sure.”

Ukraine has already spoken out against the proposed plan after agreeing to a previous one in London with European and US leaders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said the plan was suddenly switched out for one that included a red line for Kyiv: the recognition of Ukraine’s Crimea as Russian.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine during Moscow’s initial invasion of the country in 2014.

A recognition of the territory as Russian would break both the Ukrainian constitution and longtime US foreign policy under the Welles Declaration, which holds Washington will not recognize annexed territory as belonging to the aggressor.

Despite Kyiv agreeing immediately to a previous Trump-proposed temporary cease-fire — while Moscow rejected it — Russia has consistently and blatantly attempted to paint Ukraine as the party to blame for the dragged-out talks.

Trump had hoped to end the war on his first day in office, which later became within his first 100 days — a deadline fast approaching next week. In recent weeks, he has grown increasingly frustrated with the war continuing to rage.

“The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taking so long?’?” he snapped at a reporter Friday who asked about Trump’s self-imposed deadlines.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said he didn’t know if a peace deal would be signed “by the end of the week” as Trump had hoped, according to the Kyiv Independent.