British News Agency

The meeting came after U.S. President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to make peace.

Following Wednesday’s meeting, Rustem Umerov, former Ukrainian Defense Minister and head of the Kyiv delegation, proposed a summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin by the end of August, saying that “the participation of U.S. President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be very valuable.”

The two sides also disagreed on the conditions of a possible ceasefire. Umerov said Ukraine wants “a full and unconditional ceasefire as a necessary foundation for effective diplomacy,” while Russia called for a series of short ceasefires between 24 to 48 hours to allow medical teams to retrieve dead and wounded soldiers from the front lines.

The two sides appear to have found common ground on prisoner exchanges. Medinsky said at a press conference after the meeting that the exchange of about 250 Russian and 250 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the Ukraine-Belarus border has been completed.

Medinsky added that both sides also agreed “to carry out the exchange of at least 1,200 more prisoners of war from both sides in the near future.”

The previous two rounds of talks held in Istanbul in May and June facilitated the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and fallen soldiers’ remains but achieved little progress toward peace.

On Wednesday, Zelensky said in a Telegram message that more than 1,000 Ukrainians have been returned “under all stages of the recent Istanbul agreements.”