Following the failure of Kyiv and Moscow to reach a ceasefire agreement during their first direct negotiations in over three years, Ukraine appealed for assistance from its Western partners in order to maintain to maintain pressure on Russia.
According to a Ukrainian source, the conditions that Russia was offering were “non-starters.”
Delegates from the warring nations convened for the first time since March 2022, the month following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, in response to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to put an end to the worst battle in Europe since World War Two.
Less than two hours passed during the discussions in a palace in Istanbul.
Russia said it was happy with the meeting and was prepared to maintain relations.
Both countries said they had agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war each soon in what would be the biggest such exchange yet.
But Kyiv, which wants the West to impose tighter sanctions on Moscow unless President Vladimir Putin accepts a proposal from Trump for a 30-day ceasefire, immediately began rallying its allies for tougher action.
As soon as the talks ended, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X that he had spoken by phone with Trump and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland.
Russia – which is slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield and is worried that Ukraine will use such a pause to regroup and re-arm – has said it needs to nail down the terms of a ceasefire before signing up to one.
At the meeting convened by Turkey on Friday, the negotiating teams sat opposite one another at a U-shaped table, with the Russians dressed in suits while half of the Ukrainians wore military fatigues.
The Ukrainians spoke in their own language through an interpreter, a Ukrainian source said, although Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian and a European source said Russia rejected a Ukrainian request for U.S. representatives to be in the room.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the U.S. were “closely aligning” their responses.
Ukraine rejects these terms as tantamount to capitulation, and is seeking guarantees of its future security from world powers, especially the United States.
