Russians and Ukrainians concluded the third round of direct negotiations in Istanbul last night. The two sides highlighted the "differences" in their views on ending the war that began in 2022 and ultimately agreed to carry out a new exchange of prisoners of war, the agencies reported.
After discussions at the "Ciraan" palace, which lasted only an hour, the negotiators found that their positions were "quite distant", the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, told journalists. TASS reported that the talks lasted about 40 minutes.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin dashed hopes for a breakthrough in ending the conflict that Moscow started in 2022 against the neighboring country, which has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries.
"Nobody expects the road to be easy. Of course, the discussions will be very complicated", said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, emphasizing that the warring parties' proposals for ending the conflict are "diametrically opposed".
The only concrete measure that the negotiators agreed on was the mutual return of prisoners of war. Medinsky and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the two sides had completed an exchange last night, in which each side returned more than 1,000 captured servicemen to the other.
Moscow has also offered Kiev the return of the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian servicemen and a 24- to 48-hour humanitarian pause in hostilities so that the two armies can collect their dead and wounded from the battlefield. Ukraine, in turn, has proposed a leadership meeting between Zelensky and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to be held by the end of next month, possibly in the presence of the leaders of the United States and Turkey, as reported by Kiev's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov.
In the middle of the month, US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree on a ceasefire with Ukraine, otherwise it faces severe sanctions. Kiev and its Western allies accuse Russia of making maximalist demands while its army, which is larger and better armed than Ukraine's, continues its attacks on the front.
Yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces had captured another settlement in the Sumy region, and before that, on Wednesday night, Ukraine was subjected to drone strikes that left more than 220,000 consumers without electricity, as Zelensky reported.
That night, a massive drone attack was also reported on the Black Sea city of Odessa.
The positions of the two sides so far appear irreconcilable, and the talks in Istanbul, both last night and their previous rounds in May and June, have only managed to lead to an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of dead soldiers, note agencies.
The third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine has ended and the Russian side hopes to continue contacts with Kiev. This was stated after the talks by Vladimir Medinsky, advisor to the Russian President and head of the Russian delegation, after the talks.
„Naturally, we discussed in detail the positions set out by our countries in the memoranda presented last time. The positions are quite far from each other. But we agreed to continue contacts," he continued.
Here is the rest of his statement after the meeting:
"The second unprecedentedly large exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine of approximately 1,200 people has ended. The proposal by the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, to exhume the remains of dead soldiers in order to exchange them for prisoners is a manifestation of moral degradation. I think they themselves are ashamed of their clumsy Gauleiter, who is engaged in digging up remains. They are exhuming the remains of both Russian soldiers from the Imperial Army and Soviet soldiers, among whom there are many Ukrainians. This is absolute moral degradation. Based on moral considerations that the body of a killed soldier should be buried on native land, we returned over 7,000 bodies to the Ukrainian side, and received back a small number of our own.
We have offered to hand over to Ukraine another 3,000 bodies of soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As soon as the Ukrainian side is technically ready to receive them, the remains of the dead will be handed over to Ukraine with the help of the Red Cross. Once again, we have offered to the Ukrainian side to consider declaring a short - 24-48 hours - ceasefire along the line of combat contact, on the front line, so that medical teams can take the wounded, so that commanders can take the bodies of their soldiers. Now in the so-called gray zone, due to the danger of constant drone dominance, medical teams are exposed to too much risk when evacuating the wounded.“
Russia notes "with regret" that not all civilians from the Kursk region have been returned by the Ukrainian side." "There are not many, about 30 people, but they are still being held by Ukraine," Medinsky specified. The Russian Federation is ready to exchange soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces and other categories of people for residents of the Kursk region."
"As for the tens of thousands of children allegedly taken out of Ukraine, we reviewed the entire list of 339 Ukrainian children, by any name and surname, some of the children have already been returned. Work is underway on the rest, if their legal parents, close relatives, representatives are found, then these children will be returned home immediately. Most of the children on the list handed over by Kiev to Moscow for return to Ukraine have never been to Russia. And most likely they are somewhere in Europe, we don't know. If the parents and close relatives of these children are found, they will be returned immediately, now they are under state control, in well-being and safety," Putin's adviser continued.
Russia suggested that Ukraine create three working groups to work online: “To save taxpayers' time and money, form three working groups within our delegation that will work online.“
“These will be working groups on political issues, on humanitarian issues and on military issues, consisting of relevant specialists from the military departments.“ The Ukrainian side agreed to consider this proposal.
It is necessary to first discuss the agreement on the settlement of the conflict before the leaders of the Russian Federation and Ukraine can meet.
„In order to hold such a meeting, it is necessary to first work out the terms of the agreement and understand what to discuss at this meeting, and in fact, at this meeting it is not necessary to discuss the agreement, but to sign it. A meeting to discuss all this again from scratch makes no sense", Medinsky emphasized
The Russian Federation hopes that there will be a fourth round of negotiations with Ukraine.