Russia and Ukraine agree prisoner swap, but little other progress in Istanbul talks

Russia and Ukraine agreed a prisoner swap during their third set of direct talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, but appeared to make little progress on ceasefire terms or a possible summit between their presidents – with their meeting ending after less than an hour.

The meeting came days after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to make peace or face “very severe tariffs.”

Speaking after Wednesday’s meeting, Ukraine’s former defense minister Rustem Umerov – who led Kyiv’s delegation – said he had proposed a summit by the end of August between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin and suggested the “participation of (US) President Trump and (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan will be most valuable.”

However, Russia’s delegate Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister and now a senior Putin aide, said such a meeting would be appropriate only to sign an agreement, Reuters reported.

The two sides also remained at odds over the terms of any possible ceasefire, with Umerov saying Ukraine was seeking a “full and unconditional ceasefire as a necessary basis for effective diplomacy,” while Russia called for a series of short ceasefires of between 24 and 48 hours, on the front line, to allow medical teams to pick up dead and wounded soldiers.