Heads of delegations of Russia & Ukraine hold bilateral meeting in Istanbul

The Russian and Ukrainian delegation chiefs, Vladimir Medinsky and Rustem Umerov, held a one-on-one meeting in Istanbul

By Patrick Sykes and Henry Meyer  Officials from Russia and Ukraine began a third round of talks in Istanbul, with potential prisoner swaps on the agenda but little expectation of progress on ending the full-scale war that’s in its fourth year. 

The Ukrainian delegation led by Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov met with Russian counterparts headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky late Wednesday for the negotiations hosted by Turkish officials.

 

“The ultimate aim is a ceasefire that will pave the way to peace,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in televised comments at the start of the talks. “Turkey is ready, as ever, to support the process.”

 

 

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the sides would discuss prisoner swaps and draft memorandums exchanged at their previous meeting in June that set out respective positions on terms for a potential peace accord that he said were diametrically opposed. The talks will be very difficult, he said, according to the Interfax news service.

 

Ukraine will insist on “an immediate and complete” ceasefire at the meeting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post. A new prisoner exchange is being organized and Kyiv’s priority at the talks is to prepare for a meeting of the two countries’ leaders, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. 

 

Peskov downplayed that prospect, saying a summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin would make little sense before details of an agreement had been worked out.

 

The latest discussions are taking place after US President Donald Trump last week issued a 50-day deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire, and threatened “very severe” secondary sanctions against countries that buy Russian oil and gas if he fails to comply. Trump also said the US would send additional military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense systems that will be paid for by Kyiv’s European allies.

 

Russia has unleashed record drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, prompting Trump to accuse Putin of a lack of sincerity in diplomacy to end the war. “He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,” Trump said.

 

The previous rounds of Istanbul talks between Ukraine and Russia in June and May led to exchanges of prisoners, but no progress in negotiations to end the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. 

 

Russia has rejected calls from Ukraine and its US and European allies for a ceasefire to allow for peace talks. The Kremlin is maintaining hardline demands for Kyiv to accept a neutral status and to withdraw its forces from four regions of eastern and southern Ukraine that Moscow is claiming but doesn’t fully occupy.

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