Russia Interfax: Moscow confirms negotiations on Wednesday
According to the Moscow news agency Interfax, Russia has confirmed the date for a new round of negotiations with Ukraine this Wednesday in Istanbul in its war of aggression, which has been going on for more than three years. The Russian delegation expects this to be the main day of negotiations, the agency reported, citing Moscow negotiating circles.
22.07.2025, 18:47
SDA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously named the date. However, the Kremlin had not yet confirmed this on Tuesday afternoon.
The meeting will once again take place in Istanbul, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov merely said. The Russian delegation will once again be led by presidential advisor and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky.
The chief negotiator on the Ukrainian side will once again be Rustem Umyerov, despite his resignation as defense minister. On Tuesday, Zelenskyi wrote on Telegram that he had tasked Umyerov, who has been appointed Secretary of the National Security Council, with putting together the new delegation.
Only result so far: prisoner exchange
This is already the third round of direct talks between the warring parties since May. Previously, there had been no negotiations between Moscow and Kiev for more than three years. At the previous meetings in May and June, the negotiators agreed on a large exchange of prisoners of war. Most recently, young soldiers under the age of 25 and seriously wounded fighters were released.
Moscow and Kiev also agreed on the return of fallen soldiers. According to Russia, it has so far handed over 7,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev in this context. There is no information on the number of prisoners exchanged.
Ukraine wants to prepare further exchanges and summit
Selenskyj has already dampened expectations for the new round of negotiations. According to him, this time too it will not be about a ceasefire and an end to the war. The priority for Kiev is the expansion of the prisoner exchange and the return of children abducted by Russia from the occupied territories, he said.
The meeting was also intended to prepare for a summit between him and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, said Selensky. Putin had once ordered the war and only he could end it, he said, explaining his insistence on a meeting with the 72-year-old.
In the past, the Kremlin has blocked a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyi. In May, for example, the Ukrainian head of state waited in vain for his counterpart in Turkey. Such a summit must be well prepared in order to be successful, according to Moscow. The Russian leadership insists that the position papers on possible paths to peace, which the warring parties had handed over to each other, should be discussed at the third round of negotiations.
Moscow attaches conditions to ceasefire
According to the Kremlin, it expects the meeting of the delegations in Istanbul to bring about a rapprochement between Moscow's and Kiev's previously opposing positions on the conditions for a ceasefire. However, this would require "major diplomatic work", said Peskov. He was not counting on a "miraculous breakthrough".
In contrast to Zelenskyi, Putin has rejected an unconditional ceasefire, as proposed by US President Donald Trump back in March. He justified this with concerns about the rearmament and redeployment of Ukrainian troops. Instead, Russia plans to continue its advance until there is a final peace solution.
Russia has not yet backed down from its maximum demands for peace and is calling for Ukraine to renounce its NATO membership and for the complete withdrawal of Kiev troops from the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson annexed by Moscow. Russia had already taken possession of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
