Zelensky declares date of upcoming Russia-Ukraine discussions

(MENAFN) Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky announced on Monday via Telegram that the next direct peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will be held in Türkiye on Wednesday. This will be the third round of talks following two meetings in Istanbul earlier this year. During the last session, both sides exchanged draft peace plans and agreed on further prisoner swaps.

Earlier reports had suggested the talks might occur on Thursday, but Zelensky confirmed that Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s negotiation team, has scheduled the meeting for Wednesday. The agenda will focus on humanitarian matters, including additional prisoner exchanges and the possibility of arranging a meeting between the two leaders.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized the complexity of the talks, noting that Russia and Ukraine’s peace proposals remain fundamentally opposed. Russia’s negotiating team composition remains unchanged, and their proposal demands international recognition of Crimea, the LPR, DPR, and parts of southern Ukraine as Russian territories, a full withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from these areas, Ukrainian neutrality, military restrictions, and a ban on Nazi organizations.

Conversely, Ukraine’s draft calls for an unconditional ceasefire, rejects enforced neutrality, insists on the right to join NATO, and seeks strong security guarantees from Western allies. Russia has opposed Western-led plans to deploy peacekeepers in Ukraine and warned that any NATO presence, even under the guise of peacekeeping, would be viewed as a military threat.

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