{"id":428487,"date":"2025-06-03T12:59:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T10:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/06\/03\/colloqui-istanbul-russia-ucraina-tregua\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T15:48:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T13:48:59","slug":"ukraine-new-deadlock-at-istanbul-ceasefire-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/06\/03\/ukraine-new-deadlock-at-istanbul-ceasefire-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine: new deadlock at Istanbul ceasefire talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Ukraine and Russia are trying again<\/strong> but without making substantial progress. Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow met again in Istanbul<\/strong> to continue direct talks on ending the war. There is an understanding on a prisoner<\/strong>\u00a0exchange <\/strong>and the return of a large number of bodies, but the positions<\/strong> on a possible ceasefire<\/strong> remain irreconcilable<\/strong>. In the meantime, bombs continue to fall on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

Aside from speculation about phantom peace talks in the Vatican, the Russians and Ukrainians continue to meet in Istanbul<\/strong>. A new round of direct negotiations <\/strong>took place yesterday (June 2) between the delegations of the two belligerents, sitting at the same table for the second time since March 2022.<\/p>\n

The first face-to-face dates back to mid-May<\/a>, when the negotiating teams had agreed on an exchange of 1,000 prisoners on each side<\/strong>, but without making progress on the central issue of the talks: the conditions for a sustainable ceasefire and, in the long run, the start of real peace talks.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Volodymyr<\/a>
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Once again, in the ancient city on the Bosphorus, the negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow gave the green light to the\u00a0release an unspecified number of prisoners<\/strong> – mainly the youngest soldiers, aged between 18 and 25, and the most seriously wounded – and to replace 6,000 fallen soldiers on each side<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The gap\u00a0between the respective positions on how to achieve a temporary halt\u00a0in hostilities —<\/strong> the starting point for substantive negotiations on a lasting peace — remains vast.\u00a0Ukraine and Russia have exchanged memorandums<\/i> outlining the conditions they see\u00a0acceptable for a truce<\/strong>, but the demands\u00a0<\/i>put down in writing by the two sides are still the same. And they are irreconcilable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

To enter into substantive negotiations, Kyiv continues to demand an immediate and total ceasefire<\/strong>, the release of all military and civilian prisoners<\/strong>, and the return of minors abducted during the occupation<\/strong>. Two other crucial points are Ukraine’s freedom to join both the EU and NATO<\/strong>, subject to political consensus within the two clubs, and the controversial\u00a0(as well as vague) security guarantees<\/strong> that the coalition of the willing should provide.<\/p>\n

\n

I briefed the President of Ukraine mid-May<\/a> on today\u2019s meeting with the Russian side in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

Upon returning to Kyiv, I will also present the Russian proposals \u2014 which they shared only today, directly during the negotiations.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian side acted clearly and\u2026 @ZelenskyUa<\/a><\/p>\n

– Rustem Umerov (@rustem_umerov) pic.twitter.com\/MYuw15BPQw<\/a>#<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kyiv also supports the need for a face-to-face<\/strong> between Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong> and Vladimir Putin<\/strong>. “We believe that it makes sense to continue the work between the delegations if it is aimed at preparing a meeting between the heads of state,” noted chief negotiator Rustem Umerov<\/strong>, the Ukrainian Defence Minister. The window he proposed for organizing the bilateral meeting – perhaps in the presence of Donald Trump<\/strong> – is “by the end of this month, from June\u00a0 20 to 30.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ukrainians point out that talks about any\u00a0territorial concessions should take place at the highest level between the two presidents.<\/strong> If these conditions are met, Kyiv says it is willing to accept the gradual easing of sanctions<\/strong> against Moscow, provided a mechanism is put in place to reintroduce them quickly if necessary. Zelensky also called for new restrictive measures<\/strong> if the Istanbul process does not lead to a ceasefire soon.<\/p>\n

These are clearly inadmissible conditions for the Kremlin, which in turn maintains its maximalist demands that Kyiv already rejected. The Federation demands the end of Western support to Ukrainian resistance<\/strong>, the “neutralization” of the attacked country as well as the renunciation of joining\u00a0the North Atlantic Alliance, and the recognition of the four partially occupied oblasts<\/strong> (plus Crimea) as Russian territory de jure and the removal of all international sanctions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>
Russian president Vladimir Putin (foto: Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Concerning the ceasefire, the Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky<\/strong> (the same\u00a0who led the Russian team in the first phase of the Istanbul talks three years ago) proposed\u00a0a partial truce of two and or three days<\/strong> to be activated only in some regions of the front during the negotiations.<\/p>\n

This second round of talks in Istanbul took place\u00a0after\u00a0the most significant Ukrainian attack on Federation soil<\/strong> since the start of the full-scale invasion, which allegedly led to the destruction of dozens of bombers. Thus, among the demands the Kremlin made\u00a0was “the refusal by Kyiv to engage in subversive and sabotage activities<\/strong> against Russia.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A breakthrough in the talks between Moscow and Kyiv still seems far off, as they continue to put mutually inadmissible conditions on the negotiating table. The delegations agreed on a new prisoner exchange, Zelensky continues to pull at Putin’s sleeve to meet in person<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":428465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[31241,31378,30509,31379],"class_list":["post-428487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-talks-istanbul-en","tag-rustem-umerov-en","tag-negotiations-war-ucraine-en","tag-vladimir-medinsky-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428487"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428521,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428487\/revisions\/428521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}