Russia takes tough stance in Istanbul talks, threatens Ukraine with long war

ISTANBUL — The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since the early weeks of the war lasted just two hours in Istanbul on Friday, with Russia taking a hard line and the two sides coming to a concrete agreement only on a prisoner swap — a sign the two sides remain very far apart on ending the conflict.

Ukraine did see that agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side as a major achievement — one that Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi described as making the talks “worth it, because we will make a thousand Ukrainian families happy.”

But the rest of the talks were clouded by a number of demands that Ukrainians found unacceptable, including that Ukraine withdraw from its own territory that Russia only partly controls.

One official, who was briefed on the talks by a delegate present in the room and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive political moment freely, said the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, told the Ukrainians: “Perhaps someone at this table will lose even more of their loved ones. Russia is ready to wage war forever.”

In an interview with state television after the talks, Medinsky explained how he brought up a 21-year-long war between Russia and Sweden that happened three centuries ago to prove the point that Moscow is ready to fight for a long time unless its conditions are met, even as European and U.S. leaders push for renewed sanctions.

“Never try to deceive the Russians and steal something from them, because sooner or later Russians always come to claim what is theirs,” Medinsky said, attributing the quote to Otto von Bismarck, the legendary 19th-century German statesman, although its authenticity has been called into question by independent Russian news outlets.

Despite the heated exchanges, especially when the talks began, Ukrainian delegates Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy director of Ukraine’s intelligence directorate, and Serhii Kyslytsia, deputy foreign minister, told The Washington Post the talks eventually became constructive. Attendees spoke in multiple languages, they said, including Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish.

Ukraine’s delegation was led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, whose family is from Crimea, the peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014. “He was completely composed, showed no emotion and, as a negotiator, came across as quite strong,” Kyslytsia said.

Still, the Russian demands that Ukrainians give up more territory remain a nonstarter. Russia does not control the regional capitals of Kherson or Zaporizhzhia, two of the regions it has illegally annexed. Russian officials had raised that demand in earlier conversations with President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and members of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s staff, said a diplomat familiar the talks.

Skibitskyi and Kyslytsia said territorial threats, which Russia has made before, were ignored by the Ukrainian delegation.

From left, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrive at the Presidential Office in Istanbul on Friday, along with members of the Ukrainian delegation. (Turkish Foreign Minister Office/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

After the meeting, Medinsky said that the Russian side was “satisfied” with the results of the negotiations, and that Ukraine had requested a meeting of heads of state.

“We agreed that each side will present its vision for the possible future ceasefire and write it out in detail,” he said. “Once that is done and this has been discussed, too, we think it will be reasonable to continue our negotiations.” Turkey also confirmed that the two sides had agreed in principle to meet again.

Ukraine and its allies have demanded an immediate ceasefire to stop the bloodshed and have long accused Russia of using negotiations to stall the process while the fighting continues.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he held a call with Trump and spoke with the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland after the Istanbul meeting. He stressed that Ukraine is ready to take “the fastest possible steps” for peace but that Russia should be held to account.

“If the Russians refuse a complete and unconditional ceasefire … there must be strong sanctions. Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war,” he posted on Telegram.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described Russia’s position in the talks as “unacceptable” and said that following a meeting of European leaders and a call with Trump, “we are now closely aligning our responses and will continue to do so.”

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, said on X that the suggestion by Medinsky that Russia was willing to fight on for decades warranted a U.S. response and called on Trump to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin instead of awarding him a meeting.

But some saw the fact that the talks actually took place as significant. Samuel Charap, an analyst with Rand, described this as “an important result” in itself.

“If one didn’t have low expectations ahead of it, the expectations were inflated,” Charap told The Post. “But it’s the first time they’ve talked directly in three years and just the fact there was an agreement on something is notable. … We are going to crawl before we walk.”

“The question is whether Trump will find this at all impressive because we don’t know what meets his minimum,” he added.

When the talks were first announced, there were hopes that these would be high-level discussions that could actually bring progress to ending the war or at least calling a ceasefire. Those were dashed, however, after Putin made clear this week that he would not be attending and sent a low-level delegation.

The Trump administration backed Putin’s call for direct negotiations with Ukraine, which he made last week to deflect from increasingly loud U.S. and European demands for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. But after Russia sent the delegation, there was major doubt that any breakthrough would emerge from the talks.

Rubio flew in for the negotiations from a meeting of NATO ministers in the Turkish resort town of Antalya but said ahead of the visit that he was not anticipating a “major breakthrough” given the relatively low rank of officials sent by Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves before departing from Istanbul on Friday.

Trump also undercut expectations for the talks he himself had backed. Speaking aboard Air Force One on Thursday as he flew to the United Arab Emirates, he said, “Look, nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together.”

Speaking in Abu Dhabi on Friday, Trump lamented that Putin did not end up going to Turkey for the talks with Ukraine, but said he wanted to meet the Russian leader “as soon as we can set it up.” He made no mention of the demand for a ceasefire he made jointly with Europe last weekend.

The European Union and Britain have in recent days agreed on new rounds of sanctions mainly targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to skirt an embargo on Russian oil products.

Trump for days had dangled the possibility that he would join the talks in Turkey, something he said he was doing to entice Putin.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France's President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speak with U.S. President Donald Trump via phone during the European Political Community Summit in Tirana, Albania, on Friday.

A bilateral meeting with Trump would vindicate Putin’s approach to negotiations, in which he has employed multiple stalling tactics and so far made no meaningful concessions, digging in on his hard-line position that seeks to acquire Ukrainian land and neutralize the country militarily.

By contrast, Russian officials and commentators were aggravated by Zelensky’s offer to meet directly with Putin and slammed him as “a careless manipulator.” The diplomatic tone soured further in the lead-up to the talks as Zelensky criticized Russia’s delegation as unserious, describing it as a “sham level,” while Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the Ukrainian leader “a clown.”

Putin never stated that he would attend, but the Kremlin remained silent on the composition of its delegation until late Wednesday, when it revealed it would be sending a team led by Medinsky, a conservative former culture minister who led the failed 2022 talks with Ukraine.

Russia's delegation head Vladimir Medinsky exits the Russian consulate ahead of a planned meeting between Ukrainian, American and Russian delegates in Istanbul on Thursday.

Ukraine’s Umerov is a practicing Muslim and key representative of the Crimean Tatar minority, and has been a major player in Kyiv’s efforts to retake the peninsula from Russian control and in drawing attention to alleged Russian mistreatment of native Crimeans.

He has called Ukraine’s retaking of Crimea his “personal struggle.”

The Kremlin does not acknowledge Crimea as a disputed territory, focusing instead on four other regions of Ukraine it has fully or partly occupied since its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Francis reported from Antalya and O’Grady from Kyiv. John Hudson in Rome contributed to this report.