Istanbul: Russia is demanding Ukraine cede all of its eastern Donbas region, but would be willing to freeze the conflict in the south of the country along current front lines, Turkiye’s top diplomat has said.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and has claimed to have annexed five of the country’s regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, along with Crimea, which it seized in 2014.
At peace talks in Istanbul this year, Russia’s negotiators demanded Ukraine pull out of those regions entirely as a precondition to ending the conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.
But following a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, Moscow has scaled back its demands, Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
“Now they have given up on that demand and are staying on the contact lines, except for one region ... There is currently a preliminary (agreement) regarding the return of 25-30 percent of Donetsk and maintaining the contact line in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” Fidan said in an interview with TGRT Haber on Thursday.
