Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the two sides were preparing a new prisoner swap and that Kyiv had demanded the return of deported children.
Delegations from Ukraine and Russia ended their second round of cease-fire negotiations in Turkey after just an hour.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 2 that the two sides were preparing for a new prisoner swap, and the Ukrainian delegation delivered a list of deported Ukrainian children to Russia that Kyiv wants returned home.
The previous round of direct talks in May also led to a swap of prisoners, with 1,000 on both sides being exchanged.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said before the talks began that the aim of Monday’s meeting, the second of its kind, was to evaluate the two sides’ conditions for a cease-fire, to facilitate more prisoner exchanges, and to discuss a possible meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.
“The eyes of the whole world are focused on the contacts here,” Fidan said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov led negotiations for Kyiv, and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky headed the Kremlin team.
However, expectations were low going into negotiations.
“We are insisting on a full and unconditional end to the killing now,” Umerov said in a press conference following the talks.
Umerov added that Ukraine had delivered its conditions to Russia days in advance of the talks but received nothing from Russia until Monday.
Kyiv will now take a week to review Moscow’s demands, he said.
He added that real peace talks could only take place at the level of national leadership and welcomed the involvement of foreign leaders in the process, including the president of the United States.
“This war must end, and the whole world supports us in that,” he said.
The brief talks in Istanbul came shortly after a string of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airbases, which Kyiv claims destroyed or damaged a significant portion of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, striking at the heart of Moscow’s ability to deliver nuclear payloads.
Speaking on Monday, Zelenskyy said that he believed Russia would prove more willing to negotiate if it took more such losses.
“Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy,” he said.
