A much-awaited assembly between the Ukrainian authorities delegation and their Russian counterparts, on Monday, ended inside an hour and with little progress in negotiating the top to the conflict that began in 2022.
While agreements had been reached on prisoner alternate, there was no phrase on talks to doubtlessly finish the decades-long battle.
The gradual tempo of the talks was attributed to the lackadaisical effort from the Russian delegation that refused to share their agenda with the negotiating groups forward of the conferences. “We didn’t receive the document until the meeting began. And therefore, we can’t provide any feedback until we have had the chance to study it,” Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, stated on the finish of the conferences.
Organised beneath the aegis of the federal government of Turkiye, this was the second such assembly in Istanbul prior to now month, between two combatants and got here lower than a day after a large-scale Ukrainian assault on Russian army infrastructure.
Operation Spiderweb
Ukraine claimed that their assault, codenamed ‘Operation Spiderweb‘, targeted over 40 planes, including surveillance and bomber aircraft, across several Russian bases, even as far east as Siberia. The resulting damage is estimated to be in billions of dollars for Russia.
The impact of this intrepidity was undeniable felt at the Çırağan Palace, overlooking the Bosphorus sea, in Istanbul, as interactions between the rival delegations remained tense.
“The war goes on,” an official from the Ukrainian embassy in Turkiye said when asked about the drone attack. “Ukraine had proposed a ceasefire on March 11. And if Russia agreed to it, I guess their planes would be intact right now,” he said, adding that the Russians remained deterrent to the idea of pausing conflicts.
In fact, a “full and unconditional ceasefire on land, at sea and in the air” remained a key demand and central to the Ukrainian agenda. “The ceasefire is a basis for future talks of substance. We really can talk only when the weapons are silent,” Mr. Umerov said. “Russia tries to get us into the dialogue on substantive issues like territories, like security guarantees, sanctions and whatsoever before we reach the ceasefire,” he added.
However, Russia has its own terms for a ceasefire. It says the “root cause” of the conflict should be addressed for durable peace, referring to its opposition to NATO’s eastward growth.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in Istanbul, stated that they had proposed a “two or three days [of ceasefire] in certain areas to collect bodies of soldiers on the fronts”. This was dismissed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who wrote on social media, “the whole point of a ceasefire is to stop people from becoming dead”.
Meeting of the leaders
The Ukrainian delegation additionally pushed for a direct assembly between Mr. Zelenskyy and Mr. Putin. “We propose to the Russian side to hold a meeting [of the leaders] by the end of this month, from June 20 to 30. This is crucial for making progress in the negotiation process,” Mr. Umerov stated.
The Ukrainians have little or no religion within the authority of any delegation despatched by Russia, one among their official stated. “In Russia, Putin is the person who decides everything… decisions on the ceasefire, on other crucial elements,” he stated.
“Our president is ready to meet tomorrow, if Putin says I’m ready. President Zelenskyy will meet him right away.”
Mr. Zelenskyy had additionally provided to fulfill with Mr. Putin over the past Istanbul talks, a transfer that was initially supported by the U.S. and Turkish officers. However, the invitation was rejected by Mr. Putin.
Prisoner alternate
Despite the brevity of the conferences and the escalation of violence, some progress was made within the type of a deal on the alternate of prisoners of conflict.
Similar to the result of the final Istanbul assembly, which resulted within the largest but prisoner alternate, it’s anticipated that each side will decide to an alternate of 1,000 prisoners, prioritising younger troopers, these between 18 and 25 years, and the severely sick and wounded. “We also agreed to return 6,000 to 6,000 bodies for fallen soldiers,” Mr. Umerov stated.
Another key demand put forth by the Ukrainian aspect was the return of practically 400 Ukrainian kids who had been allegedly kidnapped by Russian forces from the territories Russia captured. “This matter is a fundamental priority for us,” Mr. Umerov stated. “If Russia is genuinely committed to the peace process, the return of at least half of the children from this list would be serving as a positive indication,” he added.
An investigation by Yale researchers, printed in 2024, discovered 20,000 kids had been reportedly taken and transferred to Russian and Belarusian territories the place they had been enrolled into “re-education” camps. The case of the alleged abduction of youngsters additionally led the International Criminal Court, in 2023, to problem arrest warrants towards President Putin and different Russian officers.
While the Russian delegation confirmed to a piece of the media that that they had acquired a listing of 339 people, they didn’t elaborate whether or not it was a requirement they’d contemplate.
As the transient assembly got here to an in depth, the members of each delegations stayed behind to handle the media, beginning with the Ukrainians, held in one of many many grandiose rooms within the Ottoman-era palace.
However, as the primary press convention ended and the Ukrainian flag was swapped with the Russian one to set the stage for the following media briefing, journalists who interacted with the Ukrainian officers had been requested to go away. The Russian delegation held a closed-room briefing with journalists from largely their very own nationwide publications and broadcasters.
The meagre success of the negotiations was examined within the following hours as Russia launched airstrikes and shelling throughout a number of areas on the japanese Ukrainian provinces, and Ukraine launched an underwater assault on the Crimea bridge, which connects the Black Sea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, with Russian mainland.
While referring to their operations, a day earlier, a Ukrainian diplomat in Turkiye rejected assertions equating hostilities on each side. “Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is a country that is defending itself,” he stated, including that Russia hits Ukraine’s residential areas, kills kids and civilians, whereas Ukraine solely targets legit army websites inside Russia. “They are not comparable… but the war goes on,” he stated.
On the opposite aspect, Russian officers have repeatedly accused the Ukrainian forces of concentrating on civilian areas in Donbas and Russia’s border areas.
(Ruchi Kumar is an unbiased journalist primarily based in Istanbul.)
Published – June 05, 2025 04:30 am IST
