Russia and Ukraine hold their first direct peace talks in 3 years amid low expectations

Istanbul: Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years on Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expected them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than three-year war.

A Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov sat down with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, who published a photo of the meeting.

The officials present sat around a U-shaped table, with the Russians and Ukrainians facing each other.

A senior Ukrainian official close to the talks said that Kyiv's delegation was prepared to “achieve a lot today” and with a real mandate to resolve key issues.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make official statements, said the outcome hinges on whether Moscow is equally serious.

Both countries have tried to persuade US President Donald Trump, who has expressed frustration over the slow progress and threatened to punish foot-dragging, that they are eager to resolve the conflict amid extensive diplomatic maneuvering.

The latest push to end the fighting got off to a rocky start on Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face. Delegations from the two countries also flew to different Turkish cities and put together teams of significantly different diplomatic heft for possible talks.

Although expectations for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting were low, the apparent lack of traction in peace efforts frustrated hopes of bold steps being taken in Turkey toward reaching a settlement.

The two sides remain far part

The two sides are far apart in their conditions for ending the war, and Trump said Thursday during a trip to the Middle East that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

On Friday, Trump said a meeting with Putin would happen “as soon as we can set it up.”

“I think it's time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Comments Friday by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov appeared to indicate that momentum for a summit is building, as Peskov told reporters top-level talks were “certainly needed.” But he noted that preparing a summit would take time.

Ukraine has accepted a US and European proposal for a full, 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has effectively rejected it by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Meantime, Russian forces are preparing a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say.

Russia's invasion has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the UN says, and razed towns and villages. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have died, and likely a larger number of Russian troops, officials and analysts say.

On the battlefield, one Ukrainian soldier said he wasn't hopeful that the talks would bring a swift end to the war.

“I don't think they will agree on anything concrete, because summer is the best time for war,” he said, using only the call sign “Corsair,” in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military. “The enemy is trying to constantly escalate the situation.”

But he told The Associated Press that many of his fellow soldiers "believe that by the end of the year there will be peace, albeit an unstable one, but peace."

A Friday morning drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk killed a 55-year-old woman and wounded four men, Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said. All the victims worked for a municipal utility.

After Putin didn't take up Zelenskyy's challenge to sit down with him in the Turkish capital on Thursday, the Ukrainian president accused Moscow of not making a serious effort to end the war by sending a low-level negotiating team that he described as “a theater prop."

Even so, Zelenskyy said that he was sending a team headed by his defence minister to Friday's meeting in Istanbul. That would show Trump that Ukraine is determined to press ahead with peace efforts despite Russian foot-dragging, Zelenskyy said, amid intense diplomatic maneuvering by Kyiv and Moscow.

The Russian delegation also includes three other senior officials, the Kremlin said. Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as “experts” for the talks.

A flurry of diplomatic activity took place in Istanbul before the talks.

Ukrainian officials held an early-morning meeting with national security advisers from the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to coordinate positions, a senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The US team was led by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, while Umerov and presidential office chief Andriy Yermak represented Ukraine, the official said.

A three-way meeting between Turkey, the US and Ukraine also took place, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said. The US side included Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Kellogg.

Rubio on Thursday said he didn't foresee major developments in Istanbul.

“We don't have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow. And frankly, at this point, I think it's abundantly clear that the only way we're going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters Thursday in Antalya, Turkey.

Zelenskyy, meantime, flew to Albania to attend a meeting Friday of the leaders of 47 European countries to discuss security, defence and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war.