Peace Talks Between Russia and Ukraine Stop After Short Meeting

After days of confusion and theatrics, direct peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators took place on Friday in Istanbul for the first time since the start of the war and resulted in an agreement to conduct what would be the largest prisoner swap of the conflict.

After the negotiations, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes, the leaders of the Ukrainian and Russian delegations confirmed in news briefings that they had agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each in the near future.

The short talks, mediated by Turkey, focused mainly on Ukraine’s demand for a cease-fire before any substantive peace negotiations got underway.

“We agreed that each side would present its vision of a possible future cease-fire and would spell it out in detail,” said Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin aide leading the Russian delegation. “After such a vision is presented, we believe it would be appropriate to also agree to continue our talks on this.”

Mr. Medinsky also said that his team would take back Ukraine’s request for direct negotiations between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. He did not commit to arranging such a meeting.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s delegation, confirmed that the teams discussed the prisoner exchange, a cease-fire and the possibility of organizing a meeting of the two leaders.