Russia demanded Kyiv pull back troops before ceasefire, Ukrainian source says

By Tom Balmforth

Russian negotiators at peace talks in Istanbul demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all the Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire, a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the terms that Russia had put forward at Friday's meeting in Turkey - the first time the warring sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion.

The talks lasted only one hour and 40 minutes, and yielded an agreement to trade 1,000 prisoners of war on each side. The two countries have not specified when that would happen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine. "This was a deliberate killing of civilians," he said.

"Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy."

Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck a military target in Sumy. Its defence ministry said Russian troops had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and welcomed the "positive role" of the United States in helping to secure a resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine.

"(Lavrov) confirmed Moscow's readiness to continue joint work with American colleagues in this context," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine and Western governments, including the U.S., have demanded that Russia agree to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire lasting at least 30 days.

But the Ukrainian source said Moscow's negotiators had demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, with a ceasefire to take place only after that.

The source said that and other demands went beyond the terms of a draft peace deal that the United States proposed last month after consultations with Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the Ukrainian account, saying talks should be conducted "absolutely behind closed doors".

He said the next steps would be to carry out the prisoner exchange and conduct further work between the two sides. Peskov said it was possible that President Vladimir Putin could meet Zelenskiy, but only if "certain agreements" were reached, which he did not specify.

Zelenskiy had challenged Putin earlier in the week to meet him in person, an offer the Russian leader ignored.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country, after hosting the talks, was determined to continue its mediation role.

PRESSURE FROM TRUMP

Both Ukraine and Russia are under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to end what he calls "this stupid war". He has threatened to abandon U.S. efforts to broker an agreement unless they demonstrate clear progress.

After Friday's meeting, Ukraine began rallying support from its allies to take tougher action against Moscow.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Reuters: "Yet again we are seeing obfuscation on the Russian side and unwillingness to get serious about the enduring peace that is now required in Ukraine."

"Once again Russia is not serious," he said during a visit to Pakistan. "At what point do we say to Putin enough is enough?"

French President Emmanuel Macron also said the talks in Istanbul had been fruitless.

"Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin's cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, which France said this week should aim to "suffocate" the Russian economy.

But after ratcheting up sanctions for more than three years already, it is unclear how much more they can achieve.

In their efforts to forge a united front and make Putin accept a ceasefire, Ukrainian and its European leaders have been repeatedly thrown off balance by interventions from Trump.

Having publicly told Zelenskiy to accept Russia's offer of direct talks in Turkey, Trump declared on the eve of the meeting that there could be no movement on peace until he had met with Putin.

The Kremlin says Putin is ready to meet Trump, but such a summit must be carefully prepared in order to get results. It said there has been no contact between Russia and the U.S. since Friday's talks.