Ukraine-Russia peace talks raise hopes but yield little progress

Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul on Monday for peace talks, a day after trading some of the most intense air attacks of the war, but the discussions produced little result beyond an agreement to exchange prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.

Russia and Ukraine had been expected to discuss their respective conditions for a peace deal, or at least a ceasefire, in the second round of negotiations since the two sides resumed direct dialogue two weeks ago.

But while Kyiv had shared its peace terms with Moscow ahead of the meeting, Russia did not reciprocate and presented its terms only on Monday, officials from both countries said. The Ukrainian delegation said it would need a week to review Moscow’s proposal, delaying further discussion.

“We couldn’t react to the Russian proposals quickly,” Serhii Kyslytsia, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, told reporters after the talks, which lasted less than 90 minutes and took place at a historic hotel on the European side of the Bosporus.

The only concrete outcome of Monday’s talks was an agreement to exchange all gravely ill and wounded prisoners of war, as well as those under the age of 25. Speaking with reporters later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said 1,000 prisoners would be returned by each side. Both sides also announced a mutual agreement to exchange the bodies of 6,000 fallen soldiers each.

After the talks ended, Russian state news agencies published Moscow’s peace terms, listing the maximalist demands the Kremlin has made throughout the war, which have been flatly rejected by Ukraine as nothing short of capitulation. They included Ukraine’s recognition of Russia’s territorial gains, the shrinking of Ukraine’s military, designation of Russian as Ukraine’s official language, and a formal commitment to Ukrainian neutrality, which would rule out joining NATO.

In a separate section, the proposal stipulated that Russia would agree to a ceasefire only if Ukraine withdraws its troops from four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia, or if Ukraine stopped mobilizing troops and receiving weapons from abroad, and refrained from committing acts of sabotage against Russia, among other conditions.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected a meeting between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and his Ukrainian counterpart, but Zelenskyy said the Russian side had agreed to discuss the idea. He said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was pushing for a four-way meeting with him, President Donald Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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