Istanbul: The first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended on Friday less than two hours since the early Moscow’s 2022 invasion, with senior Ukrainian officials saying Russia has made new “unacceptable demands.”
According to the heads of the two delegations, Kiev and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war before the recession, which would be the largest such exchange since the war began.
Ukraine’s chief representative Rustem Umerov said the two sides also discussed the ceasefire and the meeting between the heads of state.
Vladimir Medinsky, the Russian presidential aide in charge of the Moscow delegation, said both sides agreed to provide each other with detailed ceasefire proposals and meetings of heads of state.
During the negotiations, a senior Ukrainian official said Russia had made new “unacceptable demands” to get Ukrainian troops out of large quantities of territory. The official spoke to the Associated Press on anonymity because he did not have the right to issue an official statement.
The official said the request had not been discussed before.
He said the Ukrainian side reiterated that it remains focused on making real progress – an immediate ceasefire and substantive diplomacy, “just like the United States, European partners and other countries,” the official added.
Both sides sat at U-shaped tables, but kept a distance while the war ended. U.S. President Donald Trump, who put pressure on Moscow and Kyiv to end the conflict, said his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would “once we can build that.”
“I think it’s time for us to do that,” Trump said in Abu Dhabi, summing up his trip to the Middle East.
According to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi, in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov sat opposite a low-level Russian team led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, by urging the parties to “take advantage of this opportunity” to open the opening, adding that “it is crucial that a ceasefire happen as soon as possible.”
The two countries spoke before trying to show Trump this week that he was eager to negotiate, despite his frustration at slow progress and threatening to punish the footsteps.
Putin rejected a proposal from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday to meet in Turkey. Zelenskyy accused Moscow of failing to end the war by sending a low-level delegation to make serious efforts.
Ukraine has accepted a full, 30-day ceasefire proposal from the United States and Europe, but Putin effectively rejected it by imposing far-reaching conditions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the possible Trump-Putin meeting, seemed to indicate that momentum for such a summit is underway. He told reporters that “of course” the top negotiations were needed, but added that it would take time to prepare for the summit.
The Ukrainian government and Western military analysts said the battle continued and Russian troops were preparing for a new military offensive.
Oleh Syniehubov, head of the military administration of the Kharkif region, said the drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk on Friday morning. All victims work for municipal utilities.
The United Nations said the Russian invasion had killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians and said the razed towns and villages were razed. Officials and analysts say thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have died and there may be more Russian troops.
On the battlefield, a Ukrainian soldier said he did not want the negotiations to end the war quickly.
“I don’t think they will agree on anything specific, because summer is the best time for war,” he said. He only used the call sign “Corsair” to comply with the rules of the Ukrainian army. “The enemy is trying to keep escalating the situation.”
But he told the Associated Press that many of his comrades “believe that by the end of the year, peace will be peaceful despite its instability.”
Before the negotiations began, Ukrainian officials met with national security advisers from the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to coordinate positions.
The official said the U.S. team was led by Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who retired Trump’s special for Trump to Ukraine and Russia, while Umerov and Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s office, represented Ukraine.
Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said a three-way meeting between Türkiye, the United States and Ukraine was also held. The United States includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg.
“We have little expectations for the Russian-Ukrainian talks,” Rubio said on Thursday.
He said he thought the breakthrough was possible, and it was a meeting between Trump and Putin.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met with leaders of 47 European countries in Tirana, Albania to discuss security, defense and democratic standards in the context of war.
“If the Russian delegates in Istanbul today even disagree with (a) the ceasefire, the obvious first step, then Putin will continue to undermine diplomacy, which will be 100% clear,” Zelenskyy said. “If this is not the case, then there must be at least some results today, starting with the ceasefire.”
