A new round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia concluded in Istanbul on June 2. Kyiv handed over to Moscow a list of Ukrainian children who need to be returned.
This was announced by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak.
"In Istanbul, the parties exchanged views, and we are preparing a new exchange of prisoners of war," the president said during a briefing at the Bucharest Nine summit in Vilnius.
During the negotiations, the Ukrainian side officially handed over to the Russian side a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children whom Russia has illegally deported, forcibly relocated, or is holding in temporarily occupied territories.
"We are waiting for an answer. The ball is in Russiaʼs court. True good faith is not words, but actions. And now is the time to prove it," Yermak noted.
The talks lasted a little over an hour. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported the start of the round at 2:44 p.m., and the president said they ended at around 4:17 p.m. In fact, the meeting lasted less than the first round of talks on May 16.
What preceded
On May 16, the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia since 2022 were held in Istanbul. The meeting lasted a little over an hour. According to journalists, Russia demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from a number of territories to ensure a ceasefire and threatened to occupy the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reported that at the meeting, the Ukrainian and Russian sides discussed a prisoner exchange in the "1000 for 1000" format and a ceasefire. The parties reached an agreement on the exchange — three prisoner exchanges in this format have already taken place.
On May 19, Trump spoke with Putin, as well as with Zelensky and a number of European leaders. Putin said after the conversation that he was ready to work on a memorandum with Ukraine that includes a ceasefire. Trump says that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately begin negotiations on a ceasefire and, more importantly, an end to the war”.
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