Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war after the first direct peace talks between the two parties since 2022 ended in Istanbul.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, who led the Kyiv delegation on the conversations, on Friday, local time, said that the date before the stock market will not be made public.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was chairman of the meeting, said that the two parties had in principle agreed to meet again for negotiations aimed at achieving a ceasefiring.
Ukraine has said that the next step should be a face-to-face meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After the conversations were concluded, Mr. Zenskyy confirmed on X that he had spoken with US President Donald Trump and the European allies of Ukraine.
He called for harder sanctions against Russia if it rejects a proposal supported by the US for a 30-day ceasefire.
“Ukraine is ready to take the fastest possible steps to bring real peace, and it is important that the world has a strong attitude,” he said,
“Our position -if the Russians stop a complete and unconditional -the -fire and an end to murders, must follow heavy sanctions. The pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war.”
In the meantime, Russia said that it was satisfied with the conversations and was ready to keep talking.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said that the prisoner was one of the largest such swaps since the start of the conflict.
“In general, we are satisfied with the result and we are ready to continue contacts. In the coming days there will be a huge thousand-for-thousand prisoners,” Mr. Medinsky said.
“The Ukrainian side asked for direct conversations between the leaders of the States. We have taken note of this request,”
he added.
“We have agreed that each party will present its vision of a possible future -the Fire and will spell it in detail. After such a vision has been presented, we believe that it would be appropriate, as agreed, to continue our negotiations.”
Ukraine and his allies accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of holding and saying that he is not serious about wanting peace.
Russia said it wanted to end the war on diplomatic resources and was ready to discuss a ceasefire. But it has called for a list of questions and comments, saying that Ukraine could use a break to let his troops rest, mobilize extra troops and gain more Western weapons.
KYIV wants the West to impose stricter sanctions, unless Moscow accepts a proposal from the White House for a 30-day-fired fire.
Russia’s demands were “apart from reality and went much further than everything that was discussed earlier,” a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Moscow had issued Ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of his own territory to obtain a cease-fire “and other non-starters and non-structural circumstances”.
Mr. Trump and the US State Secretary Marco Rubio have said that it is unlikely that further progress will be made, unless Mr Putin agrees to discuss personal conversations with the American president.
‘Two paths’
Both parties are under pressure from Mr Trump to end the deadly conflict of Europe since the Second World War.
Mr. Fidan said that the two parties would also share their conditions for a ceasefires.
A Ukrainian delegation, led by the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, attends a meeting with Russian delegation (not depicted) in Istanbul. ((Reuters: Arda Kucukkaya))
During the negotiations in Instanbul, representatives faced each other, with the Russians in suits and half of the Ukrainians who wore camouflage military fatigue.
“There are two paths for us: one way will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death,” said Mr. Fidan.
“The parties will decide for themselves, with their own will, which path they choose”, “
Fidan said.
It was Mr Putin who suggested the direct conversations in Turkiye, but he devoted a challenge to Mr Zenskyy to meet him personally, instead to send a team of officials at the middle level. Ukraine responded by negotiators of a similar rank.
Mr Rubio had said on the eve of the meeting that no big breakthrough was probably based on the level of the negotiating teams.
Russia said on Friday that it had conquered another village in his slow, grinding advance in eastern Ukraine.
Minutes before the start of the Istanbul meeting, Ukrainian media reported an air warning and explosions in the city of DNIPRO.
Russia said it saw the conversations as a continuation of the negotiations that took place in the early weeks of the war in 2022, also in Istanbul.
The conditions that were then discussed at the time, when Ukraine still staggered from the first invasion of Russia, would have been deeply detrimental to Kyiv. They include a question from Moscow for large cuts on the size of military military Ukraine.
With Russian troops who now have control over a fifth of Ukraine, Mr Putin has stuck to his long -term demands for Kiev to give up the territory, to leave his NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral country.
Ukraine rejects these conditions as equivalent to capitulation and seeks guarantees for its future safety through world powers, in particular America.
Reuters
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