Officials from Ukraine and Russia met for talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, as Kyiv said it would push for a full ceasefire and a summit between the leaders of the two countries.
However, the Kremlin played down the chances of a breakthrough and predicted “very difficult” negotiations.
The head of the delegations – senior Ukrainian security official Rustem Umerov and Kremlin adviser Vladimir Medinsky – began talks in the presence of Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan. A full meeting of both delegations was expected later in the evening.
Talks in May and early June led to the release of thousands of prisoners of war and the return of the remains of dead soldiers, but failed to make any progress towards ending Europe’s biggest conflict since the second World War.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his delegation would “once again insist on the need for an urgent and complete ceasefire, including a halt to…strikes on civilian infrastructure".
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said he had met Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and “discussed the need for a high-level meeting” between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United States “to move toward real negotiations aimed at ending the war.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned of the difficulty of talks on “diametrically opposed” draft memorandums drawn up by Russia and Ukraine that outline their key demands for ending the fighting.
“Naturally, no one expects an easy road. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation,” he said. “Mostly, the agenda will focus on those draft memorandums … Without completing this difficult groundwork, setting specific dates for a summit makes little sense.”
Moscow says no peace is possible until Ukraine accepts the permanent occupation of five regions, formally abandons its ambition to join Nato and agrees to other strict limitations on its military and international alliances.
Russia is also demanding that all economic sanctions are removed and claims for reparations are dropped.
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Ukraine says such a settlement would amount to capitulation and the end of its sovereignty, and insists that Russia withdraw its troops from all Ukrainian territory and pay for the devastation caused by armed aggression that began in 2014 and escalated into full-scale war in 2022.
Mr Zelenskiy is also facing fierce criticism at home and intense scrutiny from western backers of Ukraine after he signed a law on Tuesday to limit the independence of the country’s two main anti-corruption agencies.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen conveyed her “strong concerns” on the issue to Mr Zelenskiy, said Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier.
“The respect for the rule of law and the fight against corruption are core elements of the European Union,” he added. “As a candidate country, Ukraine is expected to uphold these standards fully. There cannot be a compromise.”
