Istanbul hosts crucial Russia-Ukraine peace talks
The upcoming third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, scheduled for Istanbul, will involve delegations discussing draft memorandums from both sides concerning the terms for ending the war.
This announcement was made on Tuesday, July 22, by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, as reported by DW.
"The negotiations are quite complicated. Among other subjects, the draft memorandums exchanged during the second round will, of course, need to be discussed," Peskov stated, quoted by Interfax news agency. Earlier, the Russian president's spokesperson described the peace proposals from both parties as "absolutely diametrically opposed."
On July 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the next stage of negotiations with Russia would take place on July 23.
"Today, I discussed with Rustem Umerov the preparation for the prisoner exchange and a new meeting in Turkey with the Russian side. Umerov told me the meeting is planned for Wednesday. On Tuesday, we will have more details," Zelenskyy declared.
Previously, the Ukrainian leader had mentioned that the main topics for the meeting would be a ceasefire, a new prisoner exchange, and the repatriation of Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia. Zelenskyy added that the negotiations would also begin preparations for a meeting between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Commenting on these statements, Dmitry Peskov said on July 22: "There is still a lot of work to be done before we can concretely speak about the possibility of high-level or top-level meetings."
According to Russian media, the Istanbul meeting could take place on July 24 or 25.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
