A third round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey on July 23, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced.
“Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. More details will be available tomorrow.”
Two rounds of negotiations have been held this year in the Turkish city of Istanbul, resulting in agreements on the exchange of prisoners and the remains of soldiers killed in the war. But they have produced no tangible progress toward ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said his team will focus on three key issues in the upcoming meeting: the return of prisoners of war, the return of abducted Ukrainian children, and preparations for a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Putin, said on July 21 that the Kremlin supports holding the next round of talks, though he did not confirm the date.
At the last round of talks in June, Russia presented a list of hard-line demands as conditions for ending the war, including the surrender of four southeastern provinces where Russian forces maintain partial control. Such concessions—not including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014—would amount to the loss of about 15 percent of what Kyiv sees as its sovereign territory.
In addition, Moscow insists that Ukraine renounce its plans to join NATO, dismantle and destroy all Western-supplied weapons, and reject all forms of Western military assistance. Putin also reiterated his vague objective of “denazifying” Ukraine, a justification he used to escalate the long-running conflict between the two countries into a full-scale war in February 2022.
Kyiv has dismissed these demands as unacceptable. Zelenskyy has also ruled out recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a stance that further complicates the peace process.
Despite the great distance between the two sides’ demands, the peace talks gained new momentum after President Donald Trump warned on July 14 that he would impose 100 percent tariffs on countries that continue doing business with Russia if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days.
Trump’s threat, if materialized, could inflict severe economic pain on Russia by pressuring key trade partners to stop their dealings in critical sectors such as energy, agriculture, and arms. This would especially affect China and India, where refiners have been taking advantage of heavy Western sanctions to buy millions of barrels of Russian oil per day at discounted prices.
