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Ukraine and Russia met in Istanbul on Monday to change memorandums on a doable ceasefire to finish Vladimir Putin’s three-year conflict, regardless of a gulf remaining between the 2 sides’ positions.
Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow met on the Çırağan Palace on the Bosphorus for the second spherical of talks brokered by Turkey and the US after the peace course of resumed final month for the primary time since early within the battle.
Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s overseas minister, mentioned the 2 sides deliberate to debate a ceasefire, a possible assembly between the Russian president and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and a prisoner change.
However the two delegations didn’t shake fingers and provided little to counsel progress on any potential deal as Putin refuses to budge from his maximalist calls for.
After the assembly, a senior Ukrainian official mentioned that no main breakthroughs had been achieved, “simply minor steps as we anticipated”. The official added: “It appears they’re staging an image of diplomacy for Trump.”
Russia’s intransigence has annoyed the US president, who had bragged that he may resolve the battle on his first day in workplace and thought his shut relationship with Putin may assist dealer a deal.
As a substitute, Russia dismissed a 22-point US peace plan and held quick to its calls for, prompting Trump to counsel the US would take a again seat within the peace course of after the primary spherical of talks in Might.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched considered one of its most daring army operations of the conflict, hitting dozens of Russian plane at 4 airfields as far-off from the frontline as japanese Siberia.
These assaults themselves got here simply hours after Russia launched its largest drone strike on Ukraine since 2022, attacking the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia with 472 unmanned aerial automobiles.
Ukraine’s delegation, led by defence minister Rustem Umerov, launched a memorandum forward of Monday’s assembly that proposed a full and unconditional ceasefire, ensures for Ukraine’s safety and territorial integrity, and confidence-building measures as the idea for a possible peace deal.
Russia refused to publish its memorandum or give it to Ukraine earlier than the talks.
Remarks by Vladimir Medinsky, the senior aide to Putin heading up Russia’s delegation, and different senior Kremlin officers within the weeks following the primary assembly indicated that Moscow was not ready to budge from its insistence on fixing the “root causes” of the battle.
Putin has beforehand demanded that Ukraine withdraw from 4 areas partly managed by Russia — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — settle for caps on its armed forces, and pledge by no means to affix Nato.
In the course of the first spherical of talks, Medinsky made what Ukrainian officers referred to as “unacceptable” territorial calls for and threatened that Russia would conquer extra areas if its situations weren’t met.
Russian overseas minister Sergey Lavrov additionally mentioned after the primary spherical of talks that Moscow needed Kyiv to enshrine protections for Russian audio system within the nation and roll again a lot of the laws handed underneath Zelenskyy’s authorities.
Ukraine argued that these situations would quantity to give up and the tip of its existence as a sovereign state.
Russia has additionally downplayed the potential of a face-to-face assembly between Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump, saying such a summit may solely be deliberate after outcomes have been reached on the talks in Istanbul.
