Under pressure from US President Donald Trump to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two, delegates from the warring countries met for the first time since March 2022, the month after Russia invaded its neighbour.
Ukraine’s top negotiator and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov after a meeting with the Russian delegates in Istanbul. (Picture: Kemal Aslan/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia expressed satisfaction with the meeting and said it was ready to continue contacts. Both countries said they had agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war each in what would be the biggest such exchange yet.
As soon as the talks ended, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone call with Trump and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland, his spokesperson said.
Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed,” a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the US were “closely aligning” their responses.
A convoy with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio inside arrives at the peace talks in Istanbul. (Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, told reporters that his team had “taken note” of the Ukrainians’ request for direct talks between Zelensky and President Vladimir Putin.
“We have agreed that each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire and spell it out in detail. After such a vision has been presented, we believe it would be appropriate, as also agreed, to continue our negotiations,” Medinsky said.
“One thousand of our people … we managed to agree on their return. These are 1000 happy families. Even for this reason alone, it all made sense,” Sybiha wrote on Facebook.
Zelensky said Kyiv’s top priority was “a full, unconditional and honest ceasefire… to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy”.
“If you want serious negotiations, you need to have guns silent,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters.
Russia says it wants to end the war by diplomatic means and is ready to discuss a ceasefire. But it has raised a list of questions and concerns, saying Ukraine could use a pause to rest its forces, mobilise troops and acquire more Western weapons.
The negotiating teams sat opposite one another on either side of a U-shaped table, with the Russians dressed in suits while half of the Ukrainians wore military fatigues.
The Ukrainian source said the Ukrainians spoke in their own language, through an interpreter, although Russian is widely spoken and understood in Ukraine.
With Russian forces in control of about a fifth of Ukraine, Putin has held fast to demands for Kyiv to cede territory, abandon NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral country.
With Reuters
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