Moscow and Kiev came to the end of negotiations with a war prisoner exchange agreement, but without a ceasefire in sight
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia ended this Friday in Istanbul, with an exchange agreement of 1000 war prisoners. The US and Türkiye-mediated meeting no longer gave conclusive results for a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and Moscow.
This meeting, according to Ratem Umarov, Ukrainian Defense Minister, was intended to find a consensus to reach a ceasefire, but according to Ukrainian representatives in the negotiations, Kremlin made “unacceptable” demands, which implied an Ukrainian integral military withdrawal from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kerson and Zaporizehzia regions, attached by Russia. In addition to Russian intransigence and the prisoner exchange agreement, topics such as the release of Ukrainian children in Russia or a future face -to -face meeting between Zelensky and Putin were also addressed.
On the side of Kremlin, Vladimir Medinsky, advisor to Vladimir Putin, was pleased with the agreement between Russians and Ukrainians and said negotiations would continue. As for a future face -to -face meeting between the two presidents, Medinsky confirmed that he was requested by Ukraine.
After the Moscow’s impositions are known, lamentations did not lack the leading European leaders.
In a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron, Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Keir Strmer, Friedrich Merz, German Chancellor, said it was “clearly unacceptable” Putin’s position.
Merz confessed that European leaders were “very disappointed” with the outcome of meetings, as a failed opportunity from Russia for a peace agreement. In the same vein, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who presided over the meeting, considered the start of ceasefire to be “extremely important as soon as possible.”
After negotiations in Istanbul, Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke to Trump by telephone, said the Russian entourage who moved there was “low level” and that Putin was “afraid to go to Turkey.”
