What You Need To Know About Friday’s Talks Between Russia And Ukraine

Talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey on Friday ended without a breakthrough. Here’s what you need to know.

Russia and Ukraine talk: The fact that teams from each country were in the same room was a big development in itself: the warring nations haven’t officially met since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion. Kyiv sent a team led by the country’s defense minister, while Moscow’s team was headed by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky. Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, chaired discussions, which lasted a little under two hours.

Moscow makes ‘unacceptable’ demands: Russia demanded that Ukraine must cede land still under Kyiv’s control during their face-to-face talks, a source familiar with Friday’s negotiations told CNN, a position that Ukraine has long dismissed. The leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Poland called Russian demands in the talks “unacceptable.”

What happens now: Russia said each country will now “present its vision of a possible future ceasefire” after the discussions, after which the two sides would meet again. The prospect of potential direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were also raised, according to Ukraine’s team.

A prisoner swap: There was some progress on another point of discussion Friday: both Russia and Ukraine said they had agreed to a large-scale prisoner swap, which would see 1,000 inmates in each country released.

Leaders call Trump: Zelensky was followed developments from Albania, where he was joining a European summit. The Ukrainian leader, joined by the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Poland, called US President Donald Trump after the conclusion of the talks, and Zelensky said that “pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war.”

CNN