At the side of Ukraine stands its western allies after the wreck of Constantinople’s conversations. At a meeting that lasted for just one hour and 40 minutes, Kiev and Moscow failed to agree on a ceasefire, with Russia presenting terms that described as “unexpected”.

Under the pressure of US President Donald Trump To end the most bloody conflict in Europe by World War II, representatives from the war countries first met since March 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

During the talks in Dolmabahce, Russia welcomed the meeting and said it was ready to continue contacts. Both sides stated that agreed to exchange soon from 1,000 prisoners of war eachthe biggest exchange so far.

However, Kiev, which seeks to impose stricter sanctions on Moscow by the West unless the Putin He accepted Trump’s proposal for a 30 -day ceasefire, he immediately began to rally his allies for a tougher attitude.

Once the conversations were finished Volodimir Zelenski He told X that he had spoken by phone with Trump and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland.

“Ukraine is ready to take the fastest strong steps to bring true peace and it is important for people to keep a strong attitude,” Zelenski said. He called for “harsh sanctions” if Russia rejects a complete and unconditional ceasefire.

Russia, which is moving slowly but steadily on the battlefield and worried that Ukraine will use the 30 -day truce to reconstitute, said it must determine the terms of the ceasefire before signing it.

“We have agreed that each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire and clarify it in detail,” Russia’s leader’s head told reporters after the meeting, Vladimir Mentinsky. “After such a vision is presented, we believe it would be appropriate, as it was also agreed, to continue our negotiations.”

Atmosphere

At a meeting convened by Turkey, the negotiating groups were sitting opposite each other at a U -shaped table, with the Russians dressed in costumes, while half Ukrainians wore military uniforms.

The atmosphere was calm, a Turkish official said. A specific timetable or location was agreed for subsequent talks, the official said, since the two sides must first inform their leaders.

The Ukrainians spoke in their own language through an interpreter, a Ukrainian source said, though Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian and a European Source stated that Russia rejected Ukrainian request for the presence of US representatives in the room.

Two sources knowing the talks said Mentinsky said Russia was ready to continue to fight for as long as it was needed, making a simile with the wars of the great Peter against Sweden, which lasted 21 years in the early 1700s.

“We don’t want war, but we are ready to fight for one, two, three years – as long as you want,” he said according to one sources.

‘Cut off from reality’

A source of the Ukrainian delegation said Russia’s demands at the meeting were “cut off from reality and far beyond anything previously discussed”.

The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated that Moscow gave Ukraine ultimatums to retire from sections of its territory In order to achieve a ceasefire, and set “other non -initial and non -constructive conditions”.

British Prime Minister Kir Starmer said the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the US are “aligning” their answers.

European Commission President Ursula von der Laien said the EU is working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow.

Russia has stated that it sees its talks with Ukraine as a continuation of the 2022 negotiations, which were also held in Constantinople. But the terms discussed then would be very disadvantaged about Kiev now.

They included Moscow’s request for large cuts in the Ukraine army. With the Russian forces controlling about one -fifth of Ukraine, Putin persistently asks Kiev to grant territories, abandon NATO integration efforts and become a neutral country.

Ukraine rejects these terms as capitulation equivalent and calls for world powers, especially the United States, guarantees for its future security.

Given the credentials to Trump’s efforts and other US officials, Putin’s envoy to investment, Siril Dmitryv, published in X that Friday’s talks have produced “good results … 1. The largest exchange of prisoners of war, 2.

Unclear the next step

Putin, after proposing direct talks to Turkey, rejected Zelenski’s challenge to meet him personally in Constantinople, reducing expectations for significant progress.

Hopes further retreated when Trump, completing the Middle East tour, said there would be no move until he and Putin met.

The Kremlin said on Friday that a Putin-Trump meeting was necessary to make progress, but would need significant preparation and had to produce results.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Friday, said he believed he would make a “deal” with Putin, but that he would impose sanctions on Russia if “we are not going to agree”.

Ukraine and Russia agreed “in principle” on Friday to meet again, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan wrote in X.

The leader of the Ukrainian delegation, Defense Minister Emerov, said the next step should be a meeting at the leaders’ level.

Mentinsky told reporters that his team had taken into account the Ukrainian request for immediate conversations between Zelenski and Putin.