Russia
and Ukraine agree prisoner swap but peace talks fail to make progress
Apart from
agreeing to swap 1,000 prisoners each, Moscow sticks to maximalist demands in
Istanbul
Pjotr Sauer
in Istanbul
Fri 16 May
2025 18.15 BST
Russia and
Ukraine have agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange but failed to reach a
breakthrough during their first direct peace talks since 2022, held in Istanbul
without either Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Sitting down
under pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, Ukraine had pushed for a
30-day ceasefire before the talks. Moscow rejected this, appearing to stick to
its maximalist demands, including sweeping restrictions on Ukrainian
sovereignty.
Images from
the meeting, held at the Dolmabahce Palace, were stark: a row of Russian
delegates in dark suits sitting opposite Ukrainians wearing their trademark
green camouflage combat fatigues.
The only
tangible result of the talks, which lasted less than two hours, was that the
two sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, the largest prisoner
swap of the conflict.
While the
meeting appeared to achieve little toward ending the conflict, it represents a
symbolic win for Putin, who refused to accept the 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine
and its European allies had demanded as a prerequisite for talks.
The Russian
leader has been engaged in a delicate balancing act with the US president,
appearing to support peace talks to stay in Trump’s favour, while pushing for
terms that in effect amount to Ukraine’s capitulation.
The outcome
is likely to be seen as a setback for Zelenskyy, coming after his bold gamble
of challenging Putin to a direct meeting in the hope of winning favour with
Washington and exposing what Ukraine describes as the Russian leader’s hollow
promises to end the war.
Vladimir
Medinsky, the ultra-conservative head of Russia’s delegation, said Moscow was
satisfied with the results and was prepared to keep talking to Kyiv.
Both sides
said they discussed organising a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, who have
met only once, in 2019.
The
stalemate appears to pave the way for a US-Russia summit, after Trump undercut
the talks on Thursday by saying that “nothing is going to happen” until he
meets Putin personally. On Friday, the US president, who had grown increasingly
impatient with the slow pace of negotiations, said he would meet his Russian
counterpart “as soon as we can set it up”, raising fears in Kyiv that they
could be sidelined while others decide their fate.
Zelenskyy
has spent the last few weeks accommodating various US demands to demonstrate
his willingness to pursue peace. But Trump’s latest remarks – framing a
US-Russia summit as the only path to resolving the conflict – underscored his
failure to influence the US president’s thinking.
Expectations
were already low for the talks, with US officials playing down hopes and Moscow
showing little willingness to compromise.
Russia stuck
to its maximalist territorial demands, insisting that Ukraine surrender areas
that Moscow does not even control, according to a source in the Ukrainian
delegation cited by Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine’s
western allies, alongside Zelenskyy, were quick to denounce Russia’s position.
Keir Starmer, who was in Albania for a European summit, said the UK, France,
Germany and Poland had agreed that the Russian position in peace talks was
“unacceptable” and had discussed the matter with Trump. A photograph showed the
country’s leaders, alongside Zelenskyy, on the phone to Trump after the failed
talks.
Donald Tusk,
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz sitting
at a table around a phone
Starmer
said: “We just had a meeting with President Zelenskyy and then a phone call
with President Trump to discuss the developments in the negotiations today. And
the Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time. So as
a result of that meeting with President Zelenskyy and that call with President
Trump we are now closely aligning our responses and will continue to do so.”
Zelenskyy
renewed his calls for sanctions on Moscow if it failed to agree to a ceasefire.
“Our position – if the Russians reject a full and unconditional ceasefire and
an end to killings, tough sanctions must follow,” Zelenskyy said on X.
“Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war.”
Hopes in
Kyiv and among its European allies that Trump would impose tough sanctions
after the failed talks were dampened by the US president indicating he wanted
to meet Putin – leaving Moscow with little incentive to compromise in Turkey.
The meeting
began 24 hours later than planned after a frantic day of confusion and
political theatrics.
Putin, who
had proposed the meeting, opted not to travel to Turkey. Instead, he sent a
mid-level delegation, which led Zelenskyy to question Moscow’s seriousness,
dismissing the Russian representatives as mere “theatre props”.
Zelenskyy,
who arrived in Ankara on Thursday, ultimately gave in to US pressure to proceed
with the talks and agreed to send a delegation to Istanbul led by Ukraine’s
defence minister, Rustem Umerov.
“Unfortunately,
[the Russians] are not serious enough about the negotiations … Out of respect
for President [Donald] Trump and [the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, I
have decided to send our delegation to Istanbul now,” Zelenskyy said.
Behind the
brinkmanship lies a fundamental and, for now, irreconcilable divide in
Zelenskyy and Putin’s approaches to peace.
Ukraine has
consistently demanded a full 30-day ceasefire before entering substantive
negotiations. It has indicated it may be willing to accept a freeze of the
frontlines and drop its attempt to join Nato, but only in return for increased
western military and economic support, and security guarantees that could
include European troops on the ground.
Zelenskyy on
Friday reiterated that his number one priority was “a full, unconditional and
honest ceasefire. This must happen immediately to stop the killing and create a
solid basis for diplomacy.”
Moscow has
consistently rejected extended ceasefire proposals, arguing they would give
Ukraine time to rearm and regroup at a time of battlefield advances by Russian
forces.
The Kremlin
instead has sought to frame the meeting on Friday as a continuation of the
fruitless talks held in March 2022. At the time, Russia’s demands included
drastically scaling back Ukraine’s armed forces, blocking it from rebuilding
with western support, and imposing other sweeping restrictions on Ukrainian
sovereignty. Kyiv has repeatedly rejected those terms.
Medinsky,
who led the Russian delegation in Turkey, is a hawkish Kremlin aide and former
culture minister who has repeatedly questioned Ukraine’s right to exist as an
independent nation. During the meeting, the self-styled historian, often
criticised for historical revisionism, reportedly invoked Tsar Peter I’s
21-year war against Sweden as a warning to Ukraine, suggesting Moscow would
outlast it in a prolonged conflict and urging Kyiv to settle on Russia’s terms.
Ruth
Michaelson in Istanbul contributed to this report
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