Russia, Ukraine agree on another prisoner exchange but ceasefire talks stall

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have yielded an agreement to conduct a new prisoner exchange, with Ukrainian officials saying another round of talks is on the agenda.

“The eyes of the whole world are focused on the contacts here,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had told the Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the start of talks as they faced off against each other on opposite sides of the room in the sumptuous Ciragan Palace by the Bosphorus.

He said the aim of the meeting - which lasted about an hour on Monday - was to evaluate the conditions for a ceasefire, to discuss a possible meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents and to look at more prisoner exchange opportunities.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed his country’s delegation, announced after the talks that a new prisoner exchange had been agreed to follow up on the biggest prisoner swap of the war brokered at the last round of talks.

He and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, attending a meeting of central European and Nordic countries in Lithuania, said the new exchange would focus on those severely injured in the war and on young people.

Mr Umerov also said that Russia had handed its own draft peace accord to Ukraine and that Ukraine - which has drawn up its own version - would review the Russian document.

Russian negotiators handed a detailed memorandum to their Ukrainian counterparts outlining Russia’s terms for a full ceasefire, Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky told reporters in Istanbul.

Mr Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, also said Russia had suggested a ceasefire of two to three days in certain areas.

Ukraine has proposed holding more talks before the end of June but believes that only a meeting between Mr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin can resolve the many issues of contention, Mr Umerov said.

Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Ukraine’s delegation had handed over a list of children it said had been deported to Russia and which it wanted back.

Russia says such children were moved in order to protect them from fighting.

Turkey will take steps to bring together the leaders of Russia and Ukraine for talks in either the capital Ankara or in Istanbul, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after the talks.

“My desire is to bring Putin and Zelensky together in Istanbul or Ankara. Also to invite (US President Donald) Trump to this meeting as well ... We will take steps for this meeting after the latest talks,” Mr Erdogan said, speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The two sides had been expected on Monday to discuss their respective and wildly different ideas for what a full ceasefire and a longer term path to peace should look like amid pressure from Mr Trump, who has said the United States could abandon its role as a mediator if there is no progress.

But Mr Umerov said Ukraine had been unable to react to Russia’s proposals for peace because it had only seen them on Monday.

In Russia, before the talks began, angry war bloggers had called on the country’s armed forces to deliver a fearsome retaliatory blow against Ukraine after it launched an attack on Sunday targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and elsewhere.

Ukraine and Russia have issued starkly different assessments of the damage done to Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers - a key element in its nuclear arsenal - but it was clear from publicly available satellite imagery that Russia’s military had suffered some serious equipment losses.