WASHINGTON, United States, March 27, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Russian lawmakers held talks Thursday with members of the US Congress, a Florida representative and the State Department said -- the first such meeting in several years and one that was welcomed by the Kremlin.

Five members of the Russian Duma met with a bipartisan group of five US lawmakers "to discuss peace and bilateral relations," Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, an ally of President Donald Trump, said on X.

"As representatives of the world's two greatest nuclear super powers, we owe our citizens open dialogue, ideas, and open lines of communication," she added.

"We will continue to foster this dialogue and push for peace in support of this admin's push for peace."

Luna's post included photographs of the Russian delegation alongside her and other colleagues as they met in Washington at the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace, a building recently renamed for Trump.

In another post on the same platform, Russia's economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev called the meeting "historic."

The trip comes with US-brokered talks seeking a deal to end the war in Ukraine effectively frozen.

Several rounds of negotiations since Trump returned to the White House 14 months ago have failed to break the deadlock, with the Kremlin ruling out compromises to halt its four-year offensive.

A State Department spokesman also confirmed the visit between members of Congress and the Duma.

The Kremlin had earlier announced the visit by the Russian lawmakers and said its aim was to help revive ties between Moscow and Washington.

"We hope that these first tentative steps will, of course, make their contribution to the further revival of our bilateral engagement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Leonid Slutsky, the head of Russia's hardline Liberal Democrat party, named three members of the Russian delegation -- Boris Chernyshov, a deputy speaker of the parliament, and MPs Vyacheslav Nikonov and Svetlana Zhurova.

All Russian lawmakers of the rubber-stamp parliament are loyal to the Kremlin and support the war in Ukraine.

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had set the "main directives" for the trip and would be "thoroughly briefed" after their meetings in the United States.