The latest talks in Istanbul were followed by more prisoner exchanges, but yielded no breakthrough in ending the war.
Russian forces are pushing to create “buffer zones” along the border with Ukraine, the Kremlin has said, as fighting rages on in the wake of a third round of peace talks that again failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire, in a fourth year of war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments during a briefing on Thursday, signalling that Russia had no intention of de-escalating its war on Ukraine following a brief meeting Wednesday between delegations in Istanbul that lasted just 40 minutes.
Negotiators in the Turkish city discussed further prisoner swaps, but remained far apart on a ceasefire and a proposed face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sought by the latter.
At a news conference in Istanbul following the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said an exchange of prisoners had been carried out on the Ukraine-Belarus border, with about 250 people returned to each side.
