The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that the third round of negotiations with Russia is scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, in Istanbul. He made this announcement during his evening address. The meeting with the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, which the head of state held, was dedicated to discussing the preparation for future negotiations.
Turkish media preliminarily confirmed that the meeting will take place in a closed format. During the previous negotiations on May 16 and June 2, an agreement was reached on the exchange of prisoners, and memorandums on the conditions for a ceasefire were presented.
Today I discussed with Rustem Umerov the preparation for the exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side. Umerov reported that the meeting is planned for Wednesday.
The press secretary of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Russia is focused on a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine but is simultaneously striving to achieve its goals. Preliminary, the delegations plan to meet on Wednesday or Thursday for new peace negotiations.
The Ukrainian and Russian delegations plan to meet in Istanbul for the third round of negotiations. During the previous meetings, they achieved certain successes in the matter of prisoner exchanges and ceasefire conditions. The parties express readiness for a peaceful resolution of the conflict; however, they do not cease their aspirations to achieve their own goals.