Russia agrees to Istanbul talks with Ukraine
Russia agreed to have a new meeting with Ukraine with the war it launched more than three years ago.
The Russian delegation referred to resources close to negotiations and reported that the news agency Interfax, which was reported on Tuesday Tuesday, expects the main part of the negotiations to be held in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the date on Monday, but the Kremlin has not yet officially approved, spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that only since May, the two rounds of previous direct talks will be held in Istanbul.
The meeting would focus on improving the return of the Ukrainian war prisoners and children kidnapped by Russia and preparing a meeting at the presidential level.
He continued: “In addition, other efforts to secure the release of our people with both military personnel and civilians.”
According to the Kremlin spokesman, the Russian delegation will be directed by the presidential advisor and former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky.
The Ukrainian team will be directed by former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who has been appointed as the President of the National Security and Defense Council since then.
Zelenskiy said that detailed ceasefire talks were not on the agenda for the next negotiations with Russia.
In a statement to Kiev diplomats on Monday, Zelenskiy explained his insistence at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “We need more acceleration in negotiations to end the war.” He said.
He said the results can only be expected from discussions at the highest level.
Meanwhile, Moscow insists that it positions articles on possible paths on the peace roads changed by the previously fought parties.
However, the Kremlin spokesman Peskov also reduced expectations and said that the “great diplomatic study” would be necessary to reach a rapprochement about the ceasefire.
While Kiev insists on an unconditional ceasefire to allow negotiations to end the conflict, Russia adheres to maximum demands, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Eastern regions annexed illegally by Russia.
So far, the Kremlin resists Zelenskiy’s request for a meeting with Putin and argues that such a high -level encounter takes time to be prepared to be successful.
Ukraine and Russia began to conduct direct talks for the first time in May for more than three years. So far, negotiations, soldiers under the age of 25 and seriously wounded fighters released, a large -scale war has resulted in prisoners.
Russia, so far a part of the agreement as a part of the Ukrainian soldier has released the bodies, he said. There is no official figure about the number of released soldiers.
Meanwhile, a child was killed in a heavy Russian air strikes in Ukraine on Tuesday, Mayor Alexander Goncharenko, Mayor of Kramatorsk.
Goncharenko wrote on Facebook, 10 -year -old child -guided slip bombs died when he hit a residential building in Eastern Ukraine. Five more people were injured.
Kramatorsk is part of a metropolis region under Ukraine control three years after the beginning of Russia’s war in Donetsk.
However, the front was so close that the Russian army can now attack the city with heavy slip bombs with a range of up to 40km.
A few months after the war eruption, Moscow annexed the Donetsk region, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson and demanded that Ukraine be completely withdrawn from these areas.
According to the Civil Protection Agency, three people were injured in the bomb attacks in Sumy, Northeast, including one child.
Five apartment buildings, a shopping center and more than a dozen vehicles were damaged.
A few weeks ago, Putin explained his intention to create a “buffer zone” in the region by invading Ukrainian border areas.
