Kyiv (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his intention to visit Turkey on Wednesday to seek renewed negotiations with Russia aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine.
“We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners. Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine’s top priority,”
Zelenskyy, who was in Spain on Tuesday, commented on the arrangements in Turkey.
Reuters reported that a Turkish source stated U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would visit Turkey on Wednesday to participate in the scheduled talks with Zelenskyy. The Russia-Ukraine war has had significant and multifaceted effects on Europe.
Is Moscow ready to resume negotiations in Istanbul?
A week ago, Russia stated it was ready to restart peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul, according to a foreign ministry official cited by the Russian state news agency TASS.
“The Russian team is ready for this; the ball is in the Ukrainian court,”
he said. Ukraine continues to deny the Kremlin’s claims that it is responsible for the stalled peace process.
During the last meeting, which lasted only 40 minutes, the Ukrainian side suggested a meeting in August between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin later indicated that Putin was willing to meet Zelenskyy, but only in Moscow. Kyiv rejected this condition.
The first peace talks between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul on March 29-30, 2022. This happened shortly after Russia fully invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu hosted and mediated these talks. They marked the first high-level face-to-face negotiations between the two countries during the war.
How significant are Istanbul’s past agreements for current negotiations?
Russia and Ukraine agreed on a prisoner swap during their third set of direct talks in Istanbul in July 2025. Since their meeting in Istanbul in July, Ukraine and Moscow have not conducted any face-to-face talks.
Between May and July 2025, prisoner exchanges and the return of fallen soldiers’ bodies in the Ukraine-Russia conflict mainly involved the Istanbul agreements. These agreements were made during earlier talks in 2022. They allowed for the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) and the return of bodies. Ukraine and Russia held several rounds of negotiations to finalize and carry out these exchanges.
However, the two sides have not yet achieved any progress toward a ceasefire or resolving the war, which is nearing its four-year anniversary. Zelenskyy mentioned that Kyiv is also making efforts to resume prisoner exchanges.
