Updated July 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM EDT
MOSCOW and KYIV — Russia has agreed to exchange more prisoners with Ukraine, and Ukraine proposed the two countries' presidents meet along with President Trump and the leader of Turkey this summer to negotiate an end to the war.
However, in the third round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul this week, the two sides made little progress toward a ceasefire agreement — despite recent threats by President Trump to levy harsh new economic penalties on Moscow should it fail to agree to a deal by early September.
Ukrainian delegation head Rustem Umerov said he proposed a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take place by the end of August.
But the Russian delegation's leader, Vladimir Medinsky, echoed earlier Kremlin statements that Russia and Ukraine need to make substantial progress toward an agreement before Putin and Zelenskyy can meet.
Medinsky said that prisoner swaps with Ukraine would include military and, for the first time, civilian detainees. Both countries' defense ministries confirmed they exchanged military prisoners of war on Wednesday.
President Zelenskyy initiated this latest round of talks with a public challenge for Russia to speed up negotiations. The series of meetings beginning in May have previously resulted in mass prisoner exchanges but failed to stop the fighting.
"Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire," Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation on Tuesday evening before the latest talks in Istanbul. "The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions."
Zelenskyy said Kyiv's priorities remained primarily humanitarian — including the return of prisoners and thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces. But he said, "a meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace — lasting peace."
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed the prospect of a ceasefire, noting Moscow and Kyiv remained "diametrically opposed" in their positions to end the war.
"There is no reason to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles — it is hardly possible in the current situation," Peskov said.
"We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfill the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning."
Core Russian demands include an end to Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO, a neutered Ukrainian military and a formal ceding of Ukrainian territory claimed but not fully controlled by the Russian military.
The latest negotiations come as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin in particular, over continued Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities amid U.S. efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Trump said Putin had "surprised a lot of people."
"He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening," Trump said.
In what appeared to be a major shift in U.S. policy, Trump last week endorsed the sale of U.S. weapons to be used by Ukraine — with the caveat that European NATO allies would purchase the weapons and provide arms to Ukraine.
Trump also threatened additional "severe" economic penalties on Russia if Moscow didn't agree to some form of a peace deal "in 50 days" — in effect an early September deadline.
Yet, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce suggested that timeframe depended on how Trump saw peace efforts unfolding.
"I would caution when the president notes a block of time or a window that it could be any time in that window," Bruce said in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.
"If there's a genuine negotiation happening and it's in motion, then things can change rapidly," she added. "So it's never static for most of us."
Thus far, Russia has reacted cautiously to Trump's pressure.
The Kremlin has called Trump's threats "very serious" but said Moscow required time to "analyze" his positions. Putin has yet to comment publicly on the matter.
Analysts in Moscow suggest the Kremlin has little appetite to antagonize Trump, aware that the Republican president's frustrations with Russia today may be aimed back at Ukraine tomorrow.
"First of all, we know his style already — not everything he says will be implemented," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine and an occasional adviser to the Kremlin, said in an interview with NPR.
Either way, Lukyanov added, the prevailing view among Russia's political elite is that U.S. support will not be at the level it was earlier in the war.
"The conclusion is the level of military and materiel support from U.S. to Ukraine will not reach the level as it was during the Biden administration," he said.
"And if so," he said, "it cannot seriously change the equation on the battlefield."
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