{"id":137656,"date":"2025-05-16T13:56:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-latest-peace-talks-between-moscow-and-kyiv-end-after-unrealistic-demands-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T13:56:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:56:58","slug":"ukraine-latest-peace-talks-between-moscow-and-kyiv-end-after-unrealistic-demands-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-latest-peace-talks-between-moscow-and-kyiv-end-after-unrealistic-demands-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine latest: Peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv end after \u2018unrealistic\u2019 demands – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in<\/span>Please refresh your browser to be logged in<\/span>
The critical talks ended after a turbulent two days cast doubt over whether the meeting would take place at all
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Russian <\/a>and Ukrainian delegations have emerged from face-to-face peace talks,<\/a> the first in three years, after a turbulent two days<\/a> cast doubt over whether the meeting would take place at all.
Sitting at a U-shaped table with Turkish mediators at its head, negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv spent about two hours facing off in the Dolmabahce Palace, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.
Just as the talks were scheduled to begin, Kyiv<\/a> accused Russia of \u201cundermining\u201d peace talks<\/a> in Istanbul by demanding last-minute that Turkish and US representatives not get involved<\/a>. Vladimir Medinsky, the leader of Russia\u2019s low-level delegation, was meeting with a US government official in an Istanbul hotel at the time.
Hopes for the Istanbul talks remain low, after Vladimir Putin declined to join the talks at Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s invite, sending instead a low-level team headed by Kremlin aide Mr Medinsky<\/a>. Mr Zelensky\u2019s team is led by defence minister Rustem Umerov.<\/a>
A Ukrainian source said Russia\u2019s demands during the ceasefire negotiations were \u201cdetached from reality\u201d and went beyond anything they have previously discussed.<\/a><\/a>
Earlier on Friday, <\/a>Donald Trump <\/a>said he will meet Vladimir Putin <\/a>\u201cas soon as we can set it up.\u201d
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each in the coming days, Moscow\u2019s delegation has claimed, one of the largest such swaps since the conflict began.
Vladimir Medinsky, head of the delegation, added that Moscow was satisfied with the results and was ready to keep talking with Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky and a number of key European leaders held a phone call with US president Donald Trump on Friday after the conclusion of the Istanbul talks, the Ukrainian president\u2019s spokesperson said.
Sir Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk were involved in the phone call.
Details of the conversation will follow soon, the spokesperson added.
Ukraine requested a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin during talks in Istanbul, the Russian delegation as confirmed.
Putin declined the Ukrainian president\u2019s offer of a face-to-face meeting this week, instead sending a low-level delegation to meet with a Kyiv team.
Pope Leo XIV has proposed the Vatican as a venue for Russia-Ukrainian negotiations after talks in Istanbul failed to bear fruit, according to the Vatican\u2019s secretary of state.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin described the outcome of the Turkey talks as \u201ctragic\u201d.
“It’s all tragic because we hoped that a process would begin, perhaps slowly, but with a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Instead, we are back to square one,” he said on the sidelines of an event dedicated to the Istanbul summit, Italian newspaper La Stampa<\/em>.
“Now we will see what to do, but the situation is very difficult, dramatic,” Card Parolin added.
If necessary, the Pope will \u201cprovide the Vatican, the Holy See, for a direct meeting between the two sides”.
Speaking to Reuters<\/em> news agency before an exchange of artillery fire with Russian forces, 26-year-old Roman – who uses the call sign “Cowboy” – said he had little faith Moscow would agree to a demand from Kyiv and Western states for a 30-day ceasefire.
“At the moment peace is not possible,” Roman said. “We are certain that the enemy is not going to stop. Our task, as soldiers, is to hold our positions, keep on fighting, not to give up.”
The group of soldiers commanded by Roman – who did not give his full name in line with Ukrainian military protocol – was dug into woodland in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is largely controlled by Russian forces.
One of Roman’s men, Serhii, said when asked if he saw a prospect of a ceasefire: “No hope.”
“Because there was a lot of conversation before. No results,” said Serhii, a 36-year-old with the callsign Steward. “I just do my work. For our victory, to stop the war.”
A senior Ukrainian official has accused Russia of introducing \u201cunacceptable demands\u201d that had not been previously raised, following the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years.
The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to make official statements, said Russia made demands that had not been previously discussed, including calling for Ukraine to withdraw from large areas of Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The Ukrainian delegate said it seemed as if the Russian delegation “deliberately wants to throw nonstarters on the table in order to walk away from today’s meeting without any results”.
The meeting in Turkey is the first direct negotiation between Russia and Ukraine since 2022, and the Ukrainian official said Kyiv\u2019s delegation was prepared to “achieve a lot today”.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Donald Trump \u201cwants to end the war\u201d, and called on more US support to secure peace.
\u201cPresident Trump wants to end this war. We need to keep working closely with him and stay as coordinated as possible,\u201d Zelensky said.
\u201cLong-term US support is also essential. An American backstop is needed. It\u2019s important that we all work together, on every level, to make that happen. I thank everyone who is helping.\u201d
Volodymyr Zelensky said \u201cthe world must respond\u201d if it becomes clear the Russian delegation in Turkey had \u201cno real authority\u201d to agree to a ceasefire deal, and reiterated that Ukraine was ready for the war to end.
Sharing more comments on social media after addressing world leaders at a summit in Albania, Zelensky said: \u201cThis war must end \u2014 and it must end justly. Ukraine needs peace. Peace in Europe depends on whether Ukraine will get it.
\u201cOur number-one priority is a full, unconditional, and honest ceasefire. This must happen immediately to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy.\u201d
Zelensky said the \u201clow-level\u201d delegation sent to Turkey showed that Vladimir Putin wanted the negotiations to be a \u201cstaged, empty process\u201d.<\/a>
The new Pope Leo XIV said \u201cPeace cannot be built apart from truth\u201d, in posts on social media as news the Russian and Ukrainian meeting had ended.
\u201cWorking for peace requires acting justly. Every effort should be made to overcome global inequalities, which allow opulence and destitution to carve deep divides between continents, countries, and even within individual societies,\u201d he wrote on X.
Talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul on Friday have finished after around two hours, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said, after their first direct peace talks in more than three years of war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the head of the MIT intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, also attended the talks.
After it concluded, Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X: \u201cThis week, we had a real chance to move toward ending the war \u2014 if only Putin hadn\u2019t been afraid to come to T\u00fcrkiye. I was there ready for a direct meeting with him to resolve all key issues. He didn\u2019t agree to anything.\u201d
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in<\/span>Please refresh your browser to be logged in<\/span><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inThe critical talks ended after a turbulent two days cast doubt over whether the meeting would take place at allFrom reproductive rights to climate change to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}