Friday 25 / July / 2025
According to media reports, the Ukrainian and Russian delegations concluded their negotiations in Istanbul by agreeing to carry out another prisoner exchange.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported that the talks lasted around 40 minutes.
The negotiation team leaders from Ukraine and Russia are in one-on-one talks in Istanbul, news agencies have reported.
Russia's Vladimir Medinsky and Ukraine's Rustem Umerov reportedly met ahead of a third round of peace talks.
Russia says agreed with Ukraine to swap 1,200 POW each
Moscow and Kyiv have agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners of war each during peace talks in Istanbul, a Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said after the talks in Istanbul.
In addition to the POW exchange, Russia also offered to hand Ukraine the bodies of 3,000 killed soldiers, the negotiator added.
"Continuing the exchange of prisoners of war, we have agreed that at least 1,200 additional prisoners of war will be exchanged on both sides in the near future," Medinsky said at a press conference.
Medinsky also said that Russia offered Ukraine a 24-hour to 48-hour ceasefire.
When asked about Kyiv's bid for a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Medinsky said such a meeting should only be for signing documents and not for holding discussions.
"We discussed at length the positions set out by our sides in the memoranda submitted last time. The positions are quite distant. We agreed to continue contacts," Medinsky told reporters.
