Ukraine wants talks with aggressor state Russia to move forward swiftly, with the next round potentially held in a delegation format similar to earlier meetings in Türkiye, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told French outlet Libération in an interview published on May 25.
Sybiha said Kyiv is awaiting the Kremlin’s position on a potential ceasefire and is preparing its own proposals.
“We await their vision of a ceasefire and will provide them with ours. This will be one of the key topics for discussion at the next meeting… We want the negotiation process to move forward, and we want these meetings to take place as soon as possible,” Sybiha said.
He noted that Ukraine remains open to talks — but only on clear terms and with the backing of international partners. He also recalled that during previous rounds of negotiations in Istanbul, Ukraine outlined its firm red lines.
“There will be no compromise on territorial integrity or sovereignty. Ukraine will never recognize temporarily occupied territories as Russian. We will not accept limits on our defensive capabilities or any third-country veto over our choice of alliances,” the minister added.
On May 24, Russian Federation Council Deputy Chairman Konstantin Kosachev claimed that Moscow would “in the coming days” deliver its proposals to Kyiv as part of a ceasefire memorandum.
Key points from the May 16 talks in Istanbul
The May 16 meeting in Istanbul marked the first formal encounter between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in more than three years, held with Türkiye acting as mediator.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister and head of its delegation, Rustem Umerov, said that the key topics were a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange. He stated that the two sides discussed a potential “1,000 for 1,000” swap and began working on exchange lists.
Umerov said the next step should be a meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
According to Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry, the delegations agreed to meet again and said that their ceasefire proposals would be exchanged in written form.
Ukraine’s delegation included representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the President’s Office, Ukraine’s SBU Security Service, military intelligence and the General Staff. Umerov led the team. In contrast, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin sent a lower-level delegation that included his aide Vladimir Medinsky, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, and the head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Directorate, Igor Kostyukov.
According to unconfirmed reports in multiple media outlets, Russia demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from four Ukrainian oblasts — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya — while threatening to seize Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts and declaring that “Russia is ready to fight forever.”
