SAEDNEWS: Russian negotiators flew to Turkey to hold peace talks with Ukraine on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, before what will be the first direct discussions between the warring sides in more than seven weeks.
Russian negotiators flew to Turkey to hold peace talks with Ukraine on Wednesday, the Kremlin said, before what will be the first direct discussions between the warring sides in more than seven weeks, Western media reported.
Russia played down expectations of any breakthrough at the meeting, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week should focus in part on preparing a summit between himself and President Vladimir Putin.
"Naturally, no one expects an easy road. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation. The projects [of each side] are diametrically opposed," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The warring sides held two previous rounds of talks in Istanbul — on May 16 and June 2 — that led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers.
But they have made no breakthrough toward a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three-and-a-half years of war.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days.
But three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin, unfazed by Trump's ultimatum, would keep on fighting in Ukraine until the West engaged on his terms for peace, and that his territorial demands may widen.
