The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since the early weeks of the war lasted just two hours in Istanbul on Friday, with Russia taking a hard line and the two sides coming to a concrete agreement only on a prisoner swap — a sign the two sides remain very far apart on ending the conflict.
Ukraine did see the agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side as a major achievement — one that Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhy described as making the talks “worth it, because we will make a thousand Ukrainian families happy.”
But the rest of the talks were clouded by a number of demands that Ukrainians found unacceptable, including that Ukraine withdraw from its own territory that Russia only partially controls and has taken illegally.
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