Countries still far apart but agree swap prisoners

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

Ukrainian negotiators said Russia had rejected “unconditional cessation of fire” – a key request of Kiev and its allies in Europe and the United States.

The Russian team said it had offered a truce of two to three days “in certain areas” on the huge front line, but does not give more details.

At the conversations on Monday, which took place in the Turkish city of Istanbul and continued a little over an hour, the two sides agreed to exchange all sick and severely wounded prisoners of war, as well as those under the age of 25.

Expectations were low, even before the conversations began, with both sides remained deeply separated how to end the war that raged as Russia began its full -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the South Crimea Peninsula, which annexes in 2014.

Taking a briefing after the meeting, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Musrov, who led the Kiev negotiating team, said that Ukraine insisted on “full and unconditional cessation of fire” for at least 30 days on land, in the sea and in the air to “put an end to the murders now”.

He said that Ukraine had submitted its proposals for Russia’s truce “A few days ago” – but Moscow failed to do the same by presenting its plan only to the conversations in Istanbul.

The Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergius Kislyzia said Russia had rejected the unconditional cessation of fire.

Ukraine also handed a list of hundreds of children, whom Kiev said he was forcibly taken to Russia.

Negotiators in Ukraine said they were expecting Russia’s response to Ukrainian proposals by the end of June, emphasizing the need to prepare for direct conversations between Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski and Russian Vladimir Putin.

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

In a separate news briefing, the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky confirmed that all the sick and severely wounded prisoners of war and those younger than 25 would be exchanged. There is no timeframe for when it will happen.

Medinsky also said that next week Russia will pass the bodies to Kyiv to 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Rejecting the unconditional cessation of fire, Russia prefers to talk about “lasting peace”, repeating its previous difficult demands, which Ukraine and allies tell him that they are equivalent to the factual capitulation of Kiev.

The texts of both Russian and Ukrainian fire termination proposals have not been officially published officially.

However, Russian state media are publishing what they say are key moments from Moscow’s position, which include unchanged demands by Ukrainian military withdrawal from its four partially occupied region in the southeastern part and the demobilization of the soldiers.

Russia also requires international recognition in the regions of Ukraine Donetsk, Luhansk, Herson and Proceria, as well as the attached Crimea.

Other prerequisites include a ban on Ukraine’s membership in all military unions, a restriction on the size of the Ukrainian army, Russian as an official language and the lifting of international sanctions.

President Zelenski, who on Monday attended a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, said that “although there are no meaningful signals from Russia to end the war, it is important to strengthen our defense.”

He also called for more sanction pressure on Russia.

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

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

US President Donald Trump, who insists on a quick agreement, has so far delayed to hit Russia with difficult sanctions.

In a rare image last month, Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy” After the largest attacks of drones and rockets in Russia against Ukraine. In response, the Kremlin said Trump shows signs of “emotional overload”.