Ukraine and Russia to hold the first peace talks in three years

Keep –Logs informed with free updates

Simply register —vos at War in Ukraine Myft Digest: Delivered directly to the inbox.

Ukraine and Russia will hold their first direct peace talks on Friday in three years, gathering in Istanbul for intermediate discussions in the United States and Turkey in the midst of an international push for a 30-day unconditional cessation.

But the expectations of progress remained low, with Kiev and Moscow still far from the key conditions to end the Russian war during the years and the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “nothing” will happen in a Russian-Ukraine peace agreement until he and Vladimir Putin meet, who is waiting for the conversations of the conversations.

Peace talks before Istanbul was broken down in the spring of 2022, after Kiev discovered the atrocities made by Moscow forces in Bucha and other areas of Ukraine which had been occupied by Russia during the first weeks of the large -scale invasion.

The Ukraine delegation, led by the Minister of Defense, Rusem Umerov, had to meet with a Russian ranked Russian team headed by a presidential assistant and the former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky at 12:30 Local time in Istanbul. The talks follow the beginning of the last diplomatic push, after Putin refused to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy face to face.

But a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin will be on the agenda of the Ukrainian delegation, said a Ukrainian diplomat in Istanbul.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. The Ukrainian leader rejected the Russian delegation as “stop pillars”, questioning the age of its members and “if they can make decisions.”

However, Zelenskyy said that a fire could be reached if the Kyiv and Moscow negotiators could find some common ground on Friday.

The Ukrainian officer of Istanbul said that the Kiev team was “ready to work … for tangible results.”

“The question is whether the Russian side is ready for real steps towards peace. So far, Russia has obstructed all the constructive efforts made by Ukraine.”

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief chief, said that he and Umerov, along with other Ukrainian officials, met special American sent to Ukraine Keith Kellogg and UK National Security Councilor Jonathan Powell to coordinate the positions before the Russian delegation meeting. The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, was also in Istanbul on Friday and met with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha, as well as French and German diplomatic advisers.

“Ukraine is prepared for peace and for a halt the harsh and unconditional fire. We are also ready for meetings and negotiations at the highest level,” said Yermak.

Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said on Thursday that his team was “ready to work” after having preliminary conversations with Turkish officials.

Medinsky, who also directed the Moscow delegation to the last direct conversations in Istanbul in the early 2022’s, described his negotiating team as flexible and was “constructive”, but other officials have suggested that Russia would not go back from their maximalist demands.

Umerov, a Crimea tartar and an experienced negotiator, also represented Kiev in the first conversations in Istanbul three years ago and has been part of Backchannel’s talks with Russians on humanitarian issues and prisoners.

The senior Turkish officials joined the Russia-Ukraine talks.

It was not expected that the North -Americans would comply with the Russian delegation.

In the meantime, in Kiev, sirens sank before dawn as Russia launched another missile attack and drone in the Ukrainian capital and other cities. Ukraine’s air force reported that one of his F-16 hunting aircraft had been lost while “conducting a mission to repel an enemy aerial attack.”

High Ukrainian officials told The Financial Times before the week that Russia seemed to be preparing for a larger offensive, passing Kursk forces and elsewhere at strategic entry points on the battlefield, instead of preparation for peace conversations.

Deep State, a Ukrainian analytical group near the Ministry of Defense, reported in recent days that Russian armed forces had gained more ground in the Eastern Donetsk region, particularly around the cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. The Russians have increased the rhythm of their offensive and the amount of territory captured in each of the last three months.

Ukraine has managed to avoid a breakthrough throughout the front line of 1,000 km, but has struggled to stop the advance of the annoyance of the Russians. Kyiv is likely to face increasing difficulty as a problematic mobilization campaign and the arms supplied by the United States and ammunition drops.