Updated July 23, 2025 at 1:47 PM MST
MOSCOW and KYIV — Russia has agreed to exchange more prisoners with Ukraine during talks in Istanbul, Russian delegation leader Vladimir Medinsky said Wednesday.
However, the two sides made little progress toward a ceasefire agreement — despite recent threats by President Trump to levy harsh new economic penalties on Moscow should it fail to agree to a deal by early September.
Speaking after Russia and Ukraine's third round of talks, Medinsky said the prisoner swap would include military and, for the first time, civilian detainees. Both countries' defense ministries also said they exchanged military prisoners of war on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had initiated this latest round of talks with a public challenge for Russia to speed up negotiations. The series of meetings beginning in May have resulted in several mass prisoner exchanges but failed to stop the fighting.
"Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire," Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation on Tuesday evening ahead of the latest talks in Istanbul. "The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions."
Zelenskyy said Kyiv's priorities remained primarily humanitarian — including the return of prisoners and thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces, even as he called for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at ending the conflict.
"A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace — lasting peace," he said.
Speaking Wednesday, Russian delegation head Medinsky echoed the Kremlin's earlier statements that before Putin and Zelenskyy can meet face-to-face, they have to finalize an agreement — and the two sides remain far apart.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed the prospect of a ceasefire, noting Moscow and Kyiv remained "diametrically opposed" in their positions to end the war.
"There is no reason to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles — it is hardly possible in the current situation," Peskov said.
"We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfill the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning."
Core Russian demands include an end to Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO, a neutered Ukrainian military and a formal ceding of Ukrainian territory claimed but not fully controlled by the Russian military.
The latest negotiations come as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin in particular, over continued Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities amid U.S. efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Trump said Putin had "surprised a lot of people."
"He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening," Trump said.
In what appeared to be a major shift in U.S. policy, Trump last week endorsed the sale of U.S. weapons to be used by Ukraine — with the caveat that European NATO allies would purchase the weapons and provide arms to Ukraine.
Trump also threatened additional "severe" economic penalties on Russia if Moscow didn't agree to some form of a peace deal "in 50 days" — in effect an early September deadline.
Yet, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce suggested that timeframe depended on how Trump saw peace efforts unfolding.
"I would caution when the president notes a block of time or a window that it could be any time in that window," Bruce said in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.
"If there's a genuine negotiation happening and it's in motion, then things can change rapidly," she added. "So it's never static for most of us."
Thus far, Russia has reacted cautiously to Trump's pressure.
The Kremlin has called Trump's threats "very serious" but said Moscow required time to "analyze" his positions. Putin has yet to comment publicly on the matter.
Analysts in Moscow suggest the Kremlin has little appetite to antagonize Trump, aware that the Republican president's frustrations with Russia today may be aimed back at Ukraine tomorrow.
"First of all, we know his style already — not everything he says will be implemented," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine and an occasional adviser to the Kremlin, said in an interview with NPR.
Either way, Lukyanov added, the prevailing view among Russia's political elite is that U.S. support will not be at the level it was earlier in the war.
"The conclusion is the level of military and materiel support from U.S. to Ukraine will not reach the level as it was during the Biden administration," he said.
"And if so," he said, "it cannot seriously change the equation on the battlefield."
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