Updated May 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM PDT
KYIV and MOSCOW — Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met for direct talks in Istanbul on Friday — a day later than planned and amid lowered expectations for any peace deal given the absence of political heavyweights in the room.
The meeting marked their first direct diplomacy since the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
After closed-door talks that went on for less than two hours, the negotiators failed to reach even a temporary ceasefire but hinted at some progress.
The two sides agreed to a mass prisoner swap — 1,000 on each side — to take place in the coming days.
The delegations also agreed to exchange detailed ceasefire proposals as a basis for what both agreed would be further discussions.
Ukraine also suggested again that Zelenskyy and Putin should meet. Russia's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said it would be "taken into consideration."
"On the whole, we're satisfied with the results and ready to continue contacts," said Medinsky, a Russian presidential aide and former culture minister.
Ukrainian delegation leader, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, offered a short assessment, listing discussion points — a ceasefire, prisoner exchanges — and said "all modalities have been discussed."
He said the next step "would be that [a] leaders-level meeting should be organized."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered remarks from Tirana, Albania, where European leaders met Friday. He remained skeptical about progress, saying the talks should have at least produced a ceasefire as a path to long-term peace talks.
"If the Russian representatives in Istanbul today cannot even agree to that, to a ceasefire, to this clearly necessary first step, then it will be 100% clear that Putin continues to undermine diplomacy," Zelenskyy said.
He pushed for Ukraine's allies to impose sanctions on Russia's banking and energy sector if the Kremlin does not agree to a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and European leaders.
"Pressure must continue to rise until real progress is made," he said.
Hopes for progress had already faded
Hopes for more substantial diplomacy faded on Thursday, when it became clear that neither Putin nor President Trump would attend. Trump had suggested he might take time from his Middle East tour to help push through a deal for peace in Ukraine.
In fact, only one leader — Zelenskyy — showed up in Turkey, having challenged Putin to do the same.
Instead, on the eve of the negotiations, Putin announced he was dispatching a group of mid-level technocrats — most of whom were involved in earlier failed Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in 2022.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara Thursday, Zelenskyy accused Putin of cowardice and sending "stand-in props" in his place.
"We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation, what their mandate is, and whether they are capable of making any decisions on their own," Zelenskyy said. "Because we all know who makes the decisions in Russia."
Yet Russian delegation head Medinsky insisted his team had come to Turkey informed of the Kremlin's positions and with full authority to negotiate.
"The goal of direct talks with the Ukrainian side is to sooner or later establish a long-term peace that eliminates the roots of the conflict," Medinsky said to a scrum of reporters soon after arriving in Istanbul.
There was one catch: Zelenskyy and most of the Ukrainian delegation were still in Ankara, nearly 300 miles away.
Zelenskyy later confirmed he would send a team led by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to Istanbul to meet with the Russian delegation there.
When the two sides finally met on Friday, it was without handshakes or pleasantries as their host, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, reminded them of "the stakes at hand."
"There are two paths ahead of us: one road will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death," Fidan said in opening televised remarks.
"The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose."
NPR's Hanna Palamarenko contributed to this story from Kyiv.
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