MOSCOW, Dec 3 - Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Russia's recent battlefield progress in Ukraine had what he described as a positive impact on peace negotiations held with U.S. envoys in Moscow a day earlier.

In video footage released on the talks' eve, President Vladimir Putin hailed what his commanders said was Russia's capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv dismissed his claim, saying fighting was still ongoing there.