Russia and Ukraine’s direct talks Friday in Istanbul yielded an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners with the other.
The negotiations lasted for an hour and forty minutes, and were mediated by the Turks. The negotiators of the two countries reportedly discussed a potential ceasefire, prisoner exchanges, and a meeting between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Most of the talks were inconclusive. The Ukrainians favor a ceasefire before substantive peace negotiations, while the Russians favor a ceasefire as part of peace negotiations. Russia currently has momentum on the battlefield, and a ceasefire could be used by Ukraine to rearm before resuming hostilities.
The two countries also remained intractable on territorial negotiations. Both claimed that their respective constitutions require them to control the whole of the four contested oblasts in the Donbas, in addition to Crimea, which Russia reabsorbed in 2014.
The meeting represented the first time since 2022 that Russian and Ukrainian diplomats have engaged in direct negotiations. The two countries last engaged in direct negotiations in Istanbul in the days following the start of Russia’s “Special Military Operation,” in late February 2022. According to reports, by April of that year, the two countries had come to an agreement on a tentative deal to end the war. Then–Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom reportedly convinced Zelensky to break off all talks with Russia and continue the war.
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