A second round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have ended without a major breakthrough, and only an agreement between the warring sides to swap more prisoners of war.
Ukrainian negotiators said Russia had again rejected an “unconditional ceasefire” – a key demand by Kyiv and its allies in Europe and the US.
The Russian team said it had proposed a two-to-three day truce “in certain areas” of the vast front line, but gave no further details.
At Monday’s talks, which were held in the Turkish city of Istanbul and lasted just over an hour, the two sides did agree to exchange all sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war, as well those aged under 25.
Expectations were low even before the talks started, with both sides remaining deeply divided on how to end the war that has been raging since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014.
