Ukraine-Russia peace talks barely last an hour with no cease-fire breakthrough

A Ukraine-Russian cease-fire deal failed to gain traction on Monday following an extremely brief round of negotiations, with the warring sides only agreeing on a prisoner of war exchange.The short-lived meeting in Istanbul, the second of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, lasted less than an hour without any progress on ending the war.The Moscow delegation once again rejected a 30-day, US-backed cease-fire proposal, which Ukrainian officials say is necessary to end the bloodshed and set the groundwork for a wider peace deal, according to Kyiv’s delegation.The Kremlin’s negotiating team said Russia would only agree to a limited cease-fire of at most three days, and only in certain frontline positions to facilitate a POW exchange.Moscow has made it clear that it will not engage in a pause to the war until all its demands are met, including the demilitarization of Ukraine and the annexation of all territories currently occupied by Russian soldiers.

With the impasse still in place, the negotiating teams only agreed on a deal for another large POW exchange, including the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers.The negotiators have yet to hammer out the details on how many living captives would be freed, but they suggested it could be as large as the 1,000 who were exchanged following the last meeting in Istanbul in May.Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov noted that the new exchange would focus on young soldiers and those who are severely injured.

Kyiv is also demanding that Moscow hand over at least 339 Ukrainian children who have allegedly been kidnapped by Russian troops during the more than three years of war.Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, slammed the proposal as nothing more than Ukraine “putting on a show” for “bleeding-heart European old ladies,” according to the TASS state media outlet.“If you want to make someone cry, just show an orphaned child, or better yet, a child with a kitten.

This is what the Ukrainians ar...