During direct negotiations in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine came to terms with a new prisoner swap and the return of tens of thousands of dead soldiers, but little progress was made in the direction of a resolution.
Officials from both sides’ delegations met on Monday at the Ottoman-era Ciragan Palace in the Turkish city to discuss the exchange of 6, 000 combatants’ prisoners of war and their remains.
The less than two-hour meeting in Istanbul marked the second time the warring nations had convened for direct talks in a month, but expectations were low given recent military escalades on both sides.
The two parties agreed on a prisoner swap after the first direct discussion on May 16 ended without a breakthrough.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Dmitry Medvedenko, who is based in Istanbul, “the exchange of prisoners seems to be the diplomatic channel that actually works between Russia and Ukraine.”
Not in the proportions that have occurred as a result of these Istanbul talks, Medvedenko continued, adding that we have actually had prisoners exchanges throughout the war.
Prisoner-to-prison exchange
Negotiators from both nations confirmed that a deal had been reached to swap out all infantrymen who had been captured and had been seriously wounded.
“We consented to exchange all prisoners of war who were seriously hurt and sick. Rustem Umerov, the country’s lead negotiator and defense minister, stated to reporters in Istanbul that the second category includes young soldiers who are between the ages of 18 and 25.
Vladimir Medinsky, the country’s top negotiator, predicted that the swap would involve “at least 1, 000” on either side, topping the previous 1, 000 for 1, 000 POW exchange agreed at talks in May.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, the two parties “exchanged documents through the Turkish side” and Kyiv was getting ready for the release of the next group of captives.
He added that while Kyiv demanded the return of nearly 400 abducted Ukrainian children, the Russian delegation agreed to work on only 10 of them.
A limited or unconditional ceasefire?
Russia and Ukraine are still bitterly divided over a truce.
Following the discussions, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters that “Russia continued to reject the motion for an unconditional ceasefire.”
Russia, for its part, claimed to have provided a brief pause in the conflict.
According to Russia’s lead negotiator, “we have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in some front-line regions,” adding that this would be necessary to remove the bodies of dead soldiers from battlefields.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, a parliamentarian from Ukraine, expressed doubts about the Istanbul talks, according to Al Jazeera.
Because Ukraine proposed a 30-day ceasefire in March, and only one nation [Russia] rejected it, Goncharenko said, “Russia clearly shows that they don’t want to end the war.”
Ukraine has since increased its military presence far beyond the front lines, blaming drone attacks on Sunday that it claimed had damaged or destroyed more than 40 Russian warplanes.
The Arctic, Siberia, and the Far East, which are thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine, were the target of the operation’s successful attack on airbases in three remote regions.
Zelenskyy predicted that Moscow would be put under more pressure if the Russian military suffered a setback.
Russia’s new “memorandum”
The Ukrainian delegation claimed that Russia presented a memorandum outlining the terms of the Kremlin’s agreement to end hostilities at the table.
Umerov, the country’s defense minister, stated to reporters that Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response.
The Russian memorandum, which suggested as a condition for a ceasefire that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured, was published after the talks by Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.
The memorandum urges Ukraine to stop its mobilization efforts and stop receiving Western weapons, as suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as an alternative to a truce.
Additionally, the document recommends that Ukraine halt any military exercises and ban any military engagements with third countries on its soil as prerequisites for halting hostilities.
The Russian document further recommends that Ukraine ratify martial law and hold elections, which would allow the two nations to ratify a comprehensive peace agreement that would allow Ukraine to declare its neutral status, abandon its bid to join NATO, establish limits on the size of its armed forces, and grant Russian recognition as the nation’s official language on par with Ukrainian.
All those demands from Moscow have already been rejected by the West and Ukraine.
Ukraine has suggested holding additional discussions for the upcoming dates of June 20 and June 30. Selenskyy has stated his intention to meet with Putin on numerous occasions.
Former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Fedorov claims that the talks on Monday were largely uneven and that important issues remain between the opposing sides.
He claimed that “all the main political issues were unresolved,” adding that they were “very contradictory to each other” even though both sides had memorandums for peace proposals.
Trump and Zelenskyy ready to mingle
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, described the discussions as “magnificent.”
Putin and Zelenskyy will be reunited in Istanbul or Ankara, he said, and perhaps even include [US President Donald Trump] along.
No date has been set, but Trump and Putin have been confirming their intentions for a meeting for months.
Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy and Putin was “open,” according to White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt on Monday. Trump responded to a question by saying that he is “open to it and wants leaders to sit down at the table.”
After mounting mounting hostility with Zelenskyy and Ukraine in the Oval Office in February, Trump has recently expressed growing reluctance to believe that Putin may be “tapping me along.”
Trump told reporters on May 15 on the flight of Air Force One, “Nothing won’t happen until Putin and I get together.”
After Moscow launched its largest aerial assault of the conflict against Ukraine, killing at least 13 people, on May 26, Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy.”
