Russia-Ukraine negotiation delegations meet in Istanbul

The delegations' meeting began at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday at the Presidential Working Office in Dolmabahçe.

During their phone call, President Erdoğan and President Putin of Russia agreed on holding the next meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian negotiation delegations in Istanbul.

“Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are valuable friends,” Erdoğan said while addressing the negotiators from the two fighting countries.

“It will be in everyone's interest to achieve a ceasefire and peace as soon as possible. We think that we have entered a period where concrete results should be obtained from the negotiations,” Erdoğan added.

The first round of talks between Russia and Ukraine after the former's invasion of the latter on 24 February 2022 began on 28 February, near the Belarusian border. The Ukrainian president's office said that the main goals were to call for an immediate ceasefire and withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine. It concluded with no immediate agreements.

On 3 March, the second round of peace talks began. Both sides agreed to open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians. Russia's demands were Ukraine's recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea, independence for separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, and "de-militarisation" and "de-Nazification". Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that while his country was ready for talks to resume, Russia's demands had not changed.

The third round of negotiations began on 7 March, amidst ongoing fighting and bombing. Although a deal had not been reached yet, Ukrainian negotiator and advisor to the president Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted that "there were some small positive shifts regarding logistics of humanitarian corridors.

The fourth round of negotiations began on 14 March via video conference. The talks lasted a few hours and ended without a breakthrough. The two sides resumed talks on 15 March, after which Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the talks as beginning to "sound more realistic".

The fifth round of talks on 21 March failed to achieve a breakthrough. Although Zelenskyy called for direct talks with Putin to end the war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said direct talks between the two presidents would only go ahead once both sides are closer to reaching a settlement. (ILKHA)