Russia set for Ukraine talks in Turkiye, says progress will be ‘difficult'

Al Jazeera

23-07-2025

A Russian delegation is heading to Istanbul before the latest round of peace talks with Ukrainian counterparts, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has confirmed, adding that he expected the negotiations to be 'very difficult'.
A Ukrainian delegation arrived in Ankara Wednesday for bilateral meetings with Turkish officials ahead of the talks with Russia in Istanbul later, a Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters news agency. Kyiv is ready to take significant steps towards peace and a full ceasefire, the source added.
The talks, the third iteration in recent months, will be held in the Turkish city on Wednesday evening, Peskov told reporters. The meeting, proposed by Ukraine last week amid sustained United States pressure to reach a ceasefire, will be the first between the sides in more than seven weeks, but expectations of a breakthrough are muted.
'No one expects an easy road,' Peskov told reporters.
Previous rounds of talks have led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
But they failed to produce a ceasefire, as Russian negotiators refused to drop hardline demands that were not acceptable to Ukraine, including ceding four Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own and rejecting Western military support.
No 'miraculous breakthroughs' expected
Peskov said the talks would cover the positions outlined in draft memoranda presented by each side, as well as prisoner exchanges. On Tuesday, he had said there was no reason 'to hope for some miraculous breakthroughs', saying such an outcome was 'hardly possible'.
Rustem Umerov, a former defence minister and current secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, will lead Kyiv's delegation, while Russia's delegation will again be led by presidential adviser and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky.
Ukraine previously complained that Medinsky was not a real decision-maker, accusing Russia of sending officials to the talks who were not empowered to make decisions to end the conflict.
Zelenskyy outlines modest ambitions
In a statement posted on social media platform X on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined his country's goals from the negotiations.
They did not include talks over a detailed ceasefire agreement, but instead proposed making arrangements for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could, in turn, lead to an end to the war.
He said Ukraine sought 'to secure the release of our people from captivity and return of abducted children, to stop the killings, and to prepare a leaders' meeting aimed at truly bringing this war to an end'.
'Our position is fully transparent,' he said. 'Ukraine never wanted this war, and it is Russia that must end the war that it started. '
I held a meeting on the outcomes Ukraine needs from the negotiation efforts.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, reported on the implementation of the agreements reached at the second meeting with the Russian side in Istanbul, as… pic.twitter.com/0JQ1fGyaPC
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 22, 2025
In another statement on Tuesday, he said work was being carried out to prepare rounds of prisoner exchanges agreed to at the previous talks with Russia.
'Throughout this spring and summer, we have managed to significantly intensify the exchange process,' he said. 'Among those freed from captivity are people who had been listed as missing, as well as those who have been held in Russian prisons and camps since before the full-scale war.'
'Keeping the dialogue going'
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera's Rory Challands said there was no expectation that the talks would 'be especially productive'.
'They are most likely going to retread the grounds that previous rounds of talks have trod, which is essentially …facilitating the exchange of prisoners, the handing over of soldiers' remains.'
He said Kyiv was also eager to raise the issue of the return of children who had been taken from occupied territories by Russia.
'But I don't think there's any expectation here that these talks are going to be any significant breakthrough towards peace,' he said.
'It's likely to be just keeping the dialogue going and making sure that there is progress on at least those small fundamental areas.'
Bloodshed continues
The talks are due to be held as Russia continues its bloody offensive against its neighbour, with its forces mounting sustained efforts to break through at eastern and northeastern points on the 1,000km (620-mile) front line.
On Wednesday, Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had captured the settlement of Varachyne in Ukraine's northeast Sumy region, about 6km (3.7 miles) from the border. In recent weeks, Putin announced his intention to create a 'buffer zone' in the Sumy region by occupying Ukrainian border areas.
In other recent violence, Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed a 66-year-old woman overnight, the dpa news agency reported, quoting regional military governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Three people, including two 13-year-olds, were injured, he said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Moscow had launched 71 drones and decoys overnight, of which 45 were intercepted or brought down, the agency reported.