Countries still far apart but agree prisoner swap

A second round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have ended without a major breakthrough, and only an agreement between the warring sides to swap more prisoners of war.

Ukrainian negotiators said Russia had again rejected an “unconditional ceasefire” – a key demand by Kyiv and its allies in Europe and the US.

The Russian team said it had proposed a two-to-three day truce “in certain areas” of the vast front line, but gave no further details.

At Monday’s talks, which were held in the Turkish city of Istanbul and lasted just over an hour, the two sides did agree to exchange all sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war, as well those aged under 25.

Expectations were low even before the talks started, with both sides remaining deeply divided on how to end the war that has been raging since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014.

Speaking at a briefing after the meeting, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s negotiating team, said Ukraine was insisting on a “full and and unconditional ceasefire” for at least 30 days on land, at sea and in the air to “end the killings now”.

He said Ukraine had handed over its truce proposals to Russia “a few days ago” – but Moscow failed to do the same, presenting its plan only at the Istanbul talks.

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia said that Russia had rejected the unconditional ceasefire.

Ukraine also handed over a list of hundreds of children Kyiv said had been forcefully taken to Russia.

Ukraine’s negotiators said they were expecting Russia’s response to Ukrainian proposals by the end of June, stressing on the need to prepare for direct talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But so far there is no sign of any progress for a meeting between the two presidents.

Speaking at a separate news briefing, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky confirmed all sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war and those younger than 25 would be exchanged. No timeframe was given as to when this would happen.

Medinsky also said that next week Russia would hand over to Kyiv the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Rejecting an unconditional ceasefire, Russia prefers to talk about “lasting peace”, repeating its previous tough demands which Ukraine and its allies say are tantamount to Kyiv’s de facto capitulation.

The texts of both the Russian and Ukrainian ceasefire proposals have not been made public officially.

However, Russian state-run media have published what they say are key points of Moscow’s position, which include unchanged demands of a Ukrainian military withdrawal from its four partly occupied regions in the south-east, and soldiers’ demobilisation.

Russia also demands international recognition of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the annexed Crimea.

Other pre-conditions include a ban on Ukraine’s membership in any military alliances, a limit on the size of the Ukrainian army, Russian as an official language, and the lifting of international sanctions.

President Zelensky, who was on Monday attending a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, said “while there are no meaningful signals from Russia to end the war, it is important to strengthen our defence”.

He also called for more sanction pressure on Russia.

In the first round of direct peace talks, held on 16 May, Ukraine and Russia failed to bridge their differences on how to end the war, agreeing only to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each.

President Zelensky and his European allies have repeatedly accused Russia of deliberately delaying any meaningful negotiations to seize more Ukrainian territory.

US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a quick settlement, has so far delayed hitting Russia with tough sanctions.

In a rare rebuke last month, Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy” following Russia’s largest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. In response, the Kremlin said Trump was showing signs of “emotional overload”.