Ukraine and Russia agree prisoner swap in first peace talks for three years

Istanbul discussions aim to create path to ceasefire but Putin and Zelenskyy absent

Russian and Ukrainian officials were back in Istanbul on Friday – the scene of their failed peace talks in 2022. AP

Ukraine and Russia on Friday agreed to swap "thousands" of prisoners in their first face-to-face talks in more than three years aimed at ending the war in Europe.

Without presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, delegations from Moscow and Kyiv met at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, in a meeting chaired by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

There was no clear progress towards a ceasefire, but the two sides agreed to share in writing the "conditions that would make it possible", Mr Fidan said. He said Ukraine and Russia had agreed in principle to meet again.

"As a result of the meeting, they agreed to exchange thousands of people from both countries as a confidence-building measure," he said. Russia's delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky said the swap would involve 1,000 prisoners from each side.

The Ukrainian delegation, headed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, sat opposite the Russian team, headed by Mr Medinsky, an aide to Mr Putin, pictures released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry showed. Senior Turkish officials, including Mr Fidan and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, sat between them.

“There are two paths today – one of them leads to peace ... and the other will cause more destruction and more loss of life,” Mr Fidan said in televised remarks before the meeting started. “Both sides will decide on their own, with their own will, on choosing which path to go.”

Mr Putin had proposed the Istanbul talks “to remove the root causes of the conflict”, after European leaders met in Ukraine backed a 30-day ceasefire plan.

On Thursday, Mr Zelenskyy accused Russia of disrespect and lacking seriousness in the talks by sending a delegation without a clear mandate to negotiate and that was absent of officials at government minister level.

The Ukrainian President said he would not participate in talks without Mr Putin but sent a delegation to Istanbul out of respect for Turkish and US mediators.

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Mr Putin had made a "big mistake" sending a low-rank Russian delegation to Istanbul.

Ukraine said it had sent a delegation to Istanbul out of respect for Turkey and the US but accused Russia of lacking seriousness in the talks. EPA

"He knows extremely well that the ball is in his court, that he is in trouble, that he made a big mistake by sending this low-level delegation," Mr Rutte said at a gathering of European leaders in Tirana, Albania. "He has to be serious about wanting peace. So I think all the pressure is now on Putin."

On Russia’s side, the delegation was “determined to be constructive, to search for possible solutions and common ground”, Putin aide Mr Medinsky said on Thursday. “We are ready to work, to resume the Istanbul talks. We are ready for possible compromises, to discuss them.”

Alongside the US, Turkey – which hosted the last direct meeting between Ukraine and Russia in 2022 – has been pushing for a ceasefire deal. Mr Fidan urged the delegations to use Friday’s talks as a way to prepare for a meeting between Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Putin. “It is important that this meeting will prepare a meeting between the leaders,” he said.

The Ukranian delegation, which also included Serhiy Kyslytsia, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and two senior security officials, held a three-way meeting earlier in the day with a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Turkish team.

US President Donald Trump had earlier suggested he may also attend the talks but instead continued with his tour of Gulf countries that began on Tuesday.

Russia's delegation was led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, centre. EPA

Washington has been pushing for an end to the conflict but has faced challenges in the vastly differing views in Kyiv and Moscow over how the war should end. Russia rejects the idea of an international peacekeeping force in Ukraine and wants international recognition of its sovereignty over the areas of Ukrainian territory it occupies. Kyiv rejects this idea and favours sustained international support to secure what its leaders describe as “just peace”.