Ukraine has proposed a four-way meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to negotiate an end to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The meeting is suggested to take place by the end of August.
In the latest round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, the two sides made little progress toward a ceasefire agreement despite recent threats by President Trump to impose harsh new economic penalties on Moscow should it fail to agree to a deal by early September.
The Russian delegation’s leader, Vladimir Medinsky, stated that prisoner swaps with Ukraine would include military and, for the first time, civilian detainees.
Both countries’ defense ministries confirmed they exchanged military prisoners of war on Wednesday.
Ukrainian delegation head Rustem Umerov emphasized the need for substantial progress toward an agreement before Putin and Zelenskyy can meet.
President Zelenskyy has initiated this latest round of talks with a public challenge for Russia to speed up negotiations, prioritizing humanitarian issues, including the return of prisoners and thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed the prospect of a ceasefire, citing that Moscow and Kyiv remained “diametrically opposed” in their positions to end the war.
Core Russian demands include an end to Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO, a neutered Ukrainian military, and a formal ceding of Ukrainian territory claimed but not fully controlled by the Russian military.
The latest negotiations come as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin over continued Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities amid U.S. efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.
Trump has threatened additional “severe” economic penalties on Russia if Moscow doesn’t agree to some form of a peace deal “in 50 days” – in effect, an early September deadline.
Meanwhile, analysts in Moscow suggest the Kremlin has little appetite to antagonize Trump, aware that the Republican president’s frustrations with Russia today may be aimed back at Ukraine tomorrow.