Outcomes of Russia –Ukraine Talks in Istanbul. What did They Come To and What did They Agree On?

On the evening of July 23, the third round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded in Istanbul. It lasted 40 minutes. Before that, the heads of the delegations, Medinsky and Umerov, held a separate meeting. The parties discussed the positions set out in the memorandums for a long time, and eventually agreed to continue indefinite sanitary exchanges.

Ukraine and Russia will form three working groups

It was decided to form three working groups from each side, which will work online on political, humanitarian and military issues.

All agreements on humanitarian tracks have been fulfilled. Exchanges - approximately 1 thousand people.

The exchange of prisoners of war and bodies will continue

The exchange of bodies of the dead has been carried out: Russia returned more than 7 thousand bodies to Ukraine, and received a small number of its own back.

Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the President of Russia:

"We have once again proposed to the Ukrainian side to consider, in our opinion, a very important issue of declaring short - 24-48 hours - ceasefires on the line of combat contact, on the front line, so that medical teams have the opportunity to pick up the wounded, so that commanders have the opportunity to pick up the bodies of their soldiers. Due to the danger of constant dominance of FPV drones, medical teams are exposed to too much risk when evacuating the wounded."

They will continue to exchange prisoners of war. At least 1,200 more prisoners of war will be exchanged from each side.

Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the President of Russia:

"I won't hide the fact that we have proposed on our part to transfer a larger number of prisoners of war to Ukraine. If they find ours, then this number will be larger."

Russia and Ukraine discussed the return of displaced civilians:

The issue of returning civilians displaced during military actions was discussed. Not all civilians of the Kursk region (they were evacuated to the territory of Ukraine) were returned home.

Indefinite exchanges of seriously wounded and sick people will continue.

Positions in memoranda have been discussed. They are far from each other. The Parties agreed to continue contacts at the level of working groups.