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Russia's deputy head of the national security council, Dmitri Medvedev, said the purpose of Istanbul negotiations is to guarantee "a swift and decisive Russian victory," as delegations from both countries met for a second round of talks.
The former Russian president said the Istanbul talks were "not to reach reconciliation with some people's fantasy conditions, but to ensure our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime," according to a statement he made on Telegram. Medvedev also argued that Russia would respond to Ukraine's attacks on its air forces.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul on June 2, approximately two weeks after their first meeting in mid-May. The Ukrainian side conveyed to the Russian delegation a demand for an "unconditional ceasefire for at least three months on land, air and sea."
In response, the Russian side proposed a "two or three-day" regional partial ceasefire to allow for the retrieval of dead fighters' bodies. The Ukrainian delegation said after the talks that both sides agreed to hand over the remains of 6,000 soldiers.
According to Russian state media, the Russian side noted that a full ceasefire would only be accepted if Ukrainian forces withdrew from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Russia currently maintains partial control over these areas.
At the second Istanbul meeting, Moscow also demanded guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO and that Western military support to Kyiv would end.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the delegation from Kyiv at the Istanbul talks, called for the next meeting to be held before the end of June. Umerov also said both sides agreed to continue discussing preparations for a Putin-Zelenskyy summit.
Following the talks, the White House issued a statement about a potential leaders' summit. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump would be "open" to traveling to Türkiye if Russian and Ukrainian leaders agreed to meet.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump meet for a third round in Istanbul or Ankara at the end of June. Erdogan also described the second meeting in Istanbul as "magnificent."
After the Istanbul talks, Zelenskyy argued that any agreement should not "reward" Putin. Before the Istanbul negotiations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Bucharest Nine Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania: "I'm not sure Russia will be ready for productive talks. But we must always believe in some solutions."
Zelenskyy emphasized that achieving a full and unconditional ceasefire, prisoner exchanges and the return of children forcibly taken from Ukraine were priorities for them in the Istanbul talks. The Ukrainian leader argued that if the Istanbul talks fail to produce results, Western allies should increase sanctions against Russia.
Ukraine wants to reclaim territories occupied by Russia following the negotiations, while Russia does not want to withdraw from Ukraine's Donbas region, which it occupies, in addition to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. The war began when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to completely occupy Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has continued for more than three years, with Russia currently occupying approximately 20 percent of Ukrainian territory.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin participated in the talks held at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on Türkiye's behalf.
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