"In Poland's opinion, Ukraine came to Istanbul to search peace. Russia – to impose conditions of surrender. Dmitri Medvedev acknowledged that Russia's goal was to gain time and accomplish complete victory. Russia continues to mock president Trump's efforts to advance peace," wrote MFA head Radosław Sikorski on Wednesday.
"Let's give sanctions a chance. We welcome the initiatives in the US legislature and hope that they will lead to a lasting peace based on the United Nations Charter," we read.
Ukrainian-Russian peace talks in Istanbul ended with a partial agreement on 2 June – both sides agreed another exchange of prisoners of war. However, the ceasefire was not decided.
The negotiations with the Turkish mediators were a continuation of the gathering on 16 May. At the time, the parties agreed on the largest exchange of prisoners of war so far, but did not make any advancement in ending the war.
So much has been negotiated in Turkey
This time, it was agreed that as part of the fresh exchange, freedom would be regained, among others, by people seriously injured and young people aged 18-25. president Volodymyr Zelenski announced that the exchange could cover up to 1,200 people on each side, including journalists and political prisoners held in Russia.
Moscow besides declared its readiness to hand over the bodies of 6 1000 fallen soldiers to Ukraine. With this came a proposal for a short – 2-3-day ceasefire on selected sections of the front to let for the reception of the corpse.
– They do not take the ceasefire seriously," commented Volodymyr Zelenski. They're only talking about a break to collect their dead. I think it's absurd, due to the fact that a real ceasefire should service to guarantee that no 1 else dies. For them it is only a temporary halt in the war – he added.
The Ukrainian president besides noted that only 15 percent of the 6,000 bodies have been identified so far. “There were times erstwhile they gave us corpses that turned out to be their own,” said Zelenski.
During the talks Ukraine submitted a list of 339 children abducted by Russians to the Russian side. Moscow in turn submitted its own paper with proposals for a ceasefire, thus responding to the Ukrainian version transmitted on 28 May.
