Peace talks

Official Kyiv has repeatedly stated that Ukraine is ready for peace talks with Russia, but on terms of justice.

At the end of March 2022, the Istanbul agreements took place. At that time, Russia demanded the de facto capitulation of Ukraine. The Kremlin announced conditions for supposedly achieving peace. Kyiv was supposed to:

• renounce NATO membership and agree to a non-nuclear and non-aligned status;
• reduce its army, not host foreign military personnel and not receive weapons;
• grant the Russian language the status of a state language;
• recognise Crimea as Russian, and the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as "independent states".

At that time, Ukraine proposed putting the issue of Crimea's status up for negotiations for 15 years and began discussing a new system of security guarantees with its allies. Russia took a pause to analyse the proposals, and Ukraine was to agree on security guarantees with its partners. However, after the de-occupation of Bucha in the Kyiv region, the whole world saw the war crimes of the Russians, and the Istanbul negotiations effectively did not continue.

In June 2024, the First Peace Summit was held in Switzerland, at which world leaders discussed ending the Russian-Ukrainian war according to the "Ukrainian Peace Formula" and signed a joint communiqué.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that representatives of Russia would definitely be invited to the Second Peace Summit. The president stressed that Ukraine is ready to talk with Russia in any format after the full preparation of the Victory Plan. Already in autumn 2024, the president presented it in the Verkhovna Rada and to international partners. In December 2024, Ukraine had everything ready for the Second Summit. However, Russia said it would not take part in it even if it received an invitation.

For his part, Vladimir Putin declared "Russia's readiness" to enter into peace talks with Ukraine. However, for this, Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. In addition, the Kremlin dictator demands "a neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status for Ukraine, its demilitarisation and denazification". The Ukrainian side is not ready for such concessions.

At a press conference on May 11, 2025, Vladimir Putin rejected the proposal of Ukraine and its allies for a ceasefire. However, the Russian dictator proposed holding direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, 2025.

In response, US President Donald Trump said that Ukraine should agree to this proposal immediately, as the negotiations would be able to determine whether a deal is possible.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to meet Putin in person in Turkey on May 15 for talks. The Office of the President clarified that Zelenskyy would not meet with any representative of Russia other than Putin, because meetings at a lower level make no sense.

On May 16, 2025, negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul. At that time, the parties agreed on a 1,000-for-1,000 exchange.