Russia threatened Ukraine with "eternal war" during direct peace talks in Istanbul today, a source from the Kiev delegation that took part in the two-hour peace talks told Sky News.
The source told British media that the Russians were not willing to talk about the technical details of a ceasefire and were waiting for superiors to approve them.
After Rustem Umerov spoke to reporters in Istanbul, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi took the questions.
He reiterated that, during the talks today, the Russian delegation "expressed a number of demands that we consider unacceptable" .
" We have a long experience in all kinds of talks with the Russians. Believe me, since 2014, there have been many rounds ," he says, referring to talks between Kiev and Moscow after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
" So, I would say that the Ukrainian delegation knows how to handle all the things that can be expressed from that side ," Tykhyi underlined.
Tykhyi stated that the Ukrainian delegation had a "clear agenda" to secure a ceasefire in the talks.
" This is logical because if you want to have serious negotiations, you have to put away your weapons ," he said.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that " the team's first priority was the people " in Istanbul today, which is why the agreement was made to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each.
" The second objective was to discuss the ceasefire ," he added, saying that the two teams " will work on exchanging details ."
Umerov says the next step will be a meeting between Ukraine and Russia at the "leadership level." " We once again want to reiterate that Ukraine wants peace. Ukraine is focused on the people and we are capable of continuing the fight. But at the end of the day, we must end this war ," he declared.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said from Tirana that Russia has shown that it is " simply trying to buy time " by continuing the war with Ukraine.
The French president, through a post on the social network 'X', while still in Albania, said that by rejecting the ceasefire agreement, Russia has shown that it does not want peace.
He added that "the coalition of the willing ( a group of 31 countries that have pledged to support Ukraine against Russia ) will determine a united response."
After the failure of the Istanbul meeting, Pope Leo XIV has offered the Vatican as a venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin described the outcome of the talks in Turkey as "tragic".
" It's all tragic because we were hoping that a process would start, perhaps slowly, but with a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Instead, we are back to square one ," he said at an event organized by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Rome.
" If necessary, the Pope will make the Vatican, the Holy See, available for a direct meeting between the two parties ," he added. (A2 Televizion)
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