(CN) — For the first time in more than three years, Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday for direct talks on ending the war in Ukraine, but little progress was made.
The two delegations met at the Dolmabahçe Palace, the same site where the last direct talks were held in the spring of 2022, a couple of months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
The two-hour meeting was not promising, with the delegations refusing to shake hands and neither side showing willingness to make compromises. Much of the Ukrainian delegation, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, wore green camouflage fatigues, while Russian officials dressed in suits.
However, as a step to build confidence, each side said it would hand over 1,000 prisoners of war. Prisoner swaps have taken place before, but this would be the biggest yet. They also agreed “in principle” to meet again, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who acted as mediator.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the stakes for the Istanbul negotiations by challenging Putin to show up in person and agree to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and backed by European leaders.
But Putin snubbed Zelenskyy, and during the week, Kremlin officials ridiculed the Ukrainian leader as a “clown” and “pathetic” for demanding a face-to-face meeting with Putin. Zelenskyy berated Putin as a warmonger and called the delegation he sent to Istanbul a “theater prop” because it included mostly second-tier officials.
Kremlin officials say they will not agree to a ceasefire without securing concessions from Kyiv and the West over its core demands — recognition of its territorial gains in Ukraine, NATO out of Ukraine, the demilitarization of Ukraine and protections for Ukrainian Russian speakers.
Also, Russia is unlikely to want a pause in the fighting because it is making significant gains on the battlefield, and it appears it has launched a major offensive as summer approaches, bringing with it drier conditions favorable to attacks.
At this point in the war, Zelenskyy’s strategy has been to portray Putin as the obstacle to a peace deal, and in doing so, he hopes to convince Trump to help Ukraine militarily and join forces with European powers to punish Russia.
At Friday’s meeting, the Ukrainian side demanded that Putin meet Zelenskyy in person as the next step in the negotiations.
In their own bid to win over Trump, the Russians are trying to appear reasonable and open to peace negotiations, though on terms that satisfy their demands.
This was the tactic shown by Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation in Istanbul. After the meeting, he said he was satisfied with the outcome of the talks and that Moscow was “ready to continue communication” with Ukraine, as reported by Tass, a Russian state news agency.
Medinsky said Moscow and Kyiv would “present their vision of a possible ceasefire, with each side ‘spelling it out in detail,’” Tass reported.
As of late Friday, details about what was said during the talks were scarce, but according to Ukrainian and Western news outlets, Medinsky said Russia was prepared to continue fighting for years and seize more territory. Russia has already annexed the Crimean Peninsula and occupied most or much of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“We don’t want war, but we’re ready to fight for a year, two, three — however long it takes. We fought Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight?” Medinsky reportedly told the Ukrainian side, according to The Economist magazine.
Trump made ending the Ukraine war a core message of his reelection, bragging he could stop it in “24 hours.” Four months into his new term, Trump still hasn’t lived up to his promise, and it remains unclear what direction he will take as the war rages on.
An American team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also in Istanbul and held separate discussions with both sides. Rubio is working to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin as the next step in diplomacy.
On Thursday, as hopes for a breakthrough at the Istanbul talks dimmed, Trump told reporters during a trip in the Middle East that it looked like he would need to hold a summit with Putin to make progress in ending the war.
Meanwhile, European leaders are applying their own pressure on Trump and trying to get him to throw his full support behind Ukraine.
Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Poland are becoming increasingly assertive as a so-called “coalition of the willing” to stand up against Russia. They have talked about sending troops as peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
On Friday, the leaders of the four European nations decried Putin’s no-show in Istanbul as proof he wanted to continue the war. They made their comments during a meeting in Albania between European Union nations and prospective EU members. Zelenskyy was at the summit too.
“By rejecting the ceasefire and dialogue with Ukraine, Russia shows it does not want peace and is merely trying to buy time by continuing the war,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media.
“If Russia is unwilling to come to the negotiating table, Putin must pay the price,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on social media.
Starmer called Russia’s position in the peace talks “unacceptable.”
The four leaders and Zelenskyy reportedly spoke by telephone with Trump on Friday about the Istanbul talks.
“Ukraine is ready to take the fastest possible steps to bring real peace, and it is important that the world holds a strong stance,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Our position — if the Russians reject a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to killings, tough sanctions must follow. Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.