By Samson Shen

On May 16th, Russian and Ukrainian officials convened in Istanbul for their first direct peace talk since the early months of the 2022 Russian invasion. The meeting lasted less than two hours and only culminated in a prisoner swap agreement to exchange 1,000 POWs from each side, which will be their biggest swap yet. Ultimately, the discussions failed to produce any form of ceasefire agreement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the negotiations but Russian President Vladimir Putin did not, drawing criticism from the Ukrainian side that blamed Moscow for lacking enthusiasm to end the war by failing to send a serious delegation. Before appearing at the negotiations, Zelenskyy had suggested a temporary 30-day ceasefire as a stepping stone to peace. This offer, supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, was rejected by the Russian side. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhii said after the talks that “We haven’t received a Russian ‘yes’ on this basic point. If you want to have serious negotiations, you have to have guns silenced.” 

During the meeting, Russia came up with new conditions for peace, including sweeping territorial concessions, which were not acceptable to Ukraine. Due to the stalemate, President Trump announced plans to personally meet with Putin in the near future, showing his willingness in putting an end to the war.

Meanwhile, European leaders gathered at a summit in Albania and consulted President Trump, agreeing to mount a unified response to Putin’s reluctance to sign a ceasefire agreement. This will include potential new sanctions that will target Russia’s energy sector, financial system, and important Russian individuals.

However, both Moscow and Kyiv showed signs that they were willing to sit down and talk again. Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian negotiating delegation, declared that he was “satisfied with the outcome,” and that Moscow is willing to stay in touch with negotiations. The prisoner exchange agreement was welcomed as a modest breakthrough, and both sides agreed to continue negotiations in other future high-level meetings for the possibility of a ceasefire.