Russia is discussing sanctions relief with the Trump administration for the country’s flagship state investment fund, the Kremlin said Wednesday, underscoring President Vladimir V. Putin’s efforts to wring economic benefits from the negotiations on ending his war with Ukraine.

Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, described the discussions in comments to Russian journalists on Wednesday, confirming a New York Times report this week.

“Such a conversation is taking place,” Mr. Ushakov said when asked about the report, according to Tass, a Russian state news agency. “It has been going on for some time, though I do not know what the outcome will be.”

The Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions on the fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, The Times reported on Tuesday. A U.S. official said the administration was assessing the fund’s application for sanctions to be removed through established procedures as part of an effort to “improve U.S.-Russia relations and help end the war.”

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on the fund days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, calling it “a slush fund” for Mr. Putin that was “emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy.” The fund has invested billions of dollars in Russian companies, often alongside investors from the Middle East and elsewhere, pushing to expand Russia’s global influence.

The news of the administration’s potential new concession to Russia set off more criticism from Democrats in Congress who have cast President Trump as being too eager to make business deals with Mr. Putin and too reluctant to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump suspended sanctions on Russian diesel in exchange for Russia promising to increase its exports of the fuel, an attempt to lower energy prices that infuriated supporters of Ukraine.

Representative Marcy Kaptur, Democrat of Ohio, and Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a joint statement on Wednesday that further sanctions relief “only emboldens Putin and gives him the resources to prolong this conflict.”

“Ukrainian families are still living under Russian attacks,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “The United States must stand with them, but instead President Trump seems intent on throwing lifelines to their invader.”

The administration has argued that negotiating business deals with Mr. Putin can help end the war in Ukraine by showing the Russian president that the United States is serious about building a new and prosperous relationship with Moscow. To the many critics of that approach, including some Republican lawmakers, Mr. Trump is ceding economic benefits to Mr. Putin without pressuring him to end the war.

The administration has also praised Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, who has led Mr. Putin’s economic negotiations with Mr. Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.

Mr. Ushakov, the Putin aide, told reporters Wednesday that Mr. Dmitriev’s role in negotiating with Washington was one reason that the matter of dropping sanctions on his fund arose in the first place.

“Dmitriev is actively in contact” with the Americans, Mr. Ushakov said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. “That — and not only that — is why it is being discussed.”

Mr. Dmitriev’s discussions on potential deals with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner have included the sale of part of a Russian oil giant to a well-connected investor group and an effort to produce natural gas in Alaska, from which several executives resigned amid concerns about hidden Russian financing. Another proposed deal would increase Russian gas exports to Europe, which has stunned European governments.