Istanbul talks: Hope for ceasefire ends without result!

Istanbul talks: Hope for ceasefire ends without result!

Istanbul, Türkei - On May 16, 2025, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul to discuss the end of the war. This has been the first bilateral meeting for more than three years. Negotiations ended after less than two hours and without significant progress. The Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who appeared as a neutral intermediary, recalled in his opening speech of the urgency of a rapid ceasefire, which is a central demand for Ukraine. Nevertheless, no ceasefire was agreed, which stirs up expectations that the conversations are shaped by deep distrust.

The two delegations sat far apart during the negotiations, which reflects the tense relationships. Russia pursued the goal of remedying the "causes of the conflict", while Ukraine is striving for a rapid ceasefire, followed by conditions for sustainable peace. An important result of the talks was the exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war, the greatest since the beginning of the war. Nevertheless, Ukraine was dissatisfied with the demands of Russia, which included the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from controlled areas.

political reactions and international dimensions

President Donald Trump expressed his skepticism about the conversations and emphasized that a direct meeting with Putin was essential. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow dampened the hopes of such a meeting soon. The political situation remains tense, and Trump is partly to blame the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj for the continuing conflict, which was rejected by Selenskyj as a takeover of Russian propaganda. In international diplomacy, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced new sanction measures against Russia, which should affect the North Stream gas pipelines, among other things.

The latest discussions in Istanbul are part of a long and complex negotiation process that has lasted for Ukraine in February 2022 since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. The first ceasefire negotiations started immediately after the attack, but were quickly stopped. Before the current meeting, there had been no bilateral peace negotiations until February 2025. Trump initiated new mediation efforts in the same month, which initially took place between the USA and Russia. However, these efforts were inhibited by Trump's unpredictability and the lack of willingness to negotiate the Russian side.

The situation before the negotiations

In the years after the attack, there were repeated negotiations, for example as part of the Minsk process or at the failed meeting in Istanbul in spring 2022. Both sides at that time had fundamental differences about security guarantees and the definition of the Russian-Ukrainian border, which further impaired mutual trust. Agreed ceasefire and humanitarian corridors were interrupted by military escalations, increasingly to a complete failure of the diplomatic efforts.

Russia continued to carry out attacks in Ukraine, while it was officially open to diplomatic conversations. Critics argue that the Russian claims ultimately amount to a capitulation of Kiev and the waiver of territory. The question remains whether these recent conversations in Istanbul actually represent real progress in the negotiations or whether they are more used to promote political tensions between the supporters of Ukraine.