Putin's aide: Memoranda talks in Istanbul lay ground for leaders' summit

The Russian delegation has departed for Istanbul to take part in the third round of direct negotiations with Ukraine, scheduled for July 23.

The announcement was made to reporters by Dmitry Peskov, Press Secretary to the Russian President, according to the Russian press.

"Indeed, our delegation has left for Istanbul, and indeed, negotiations are scheduled for this evening. This will be the third round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. Our colleague Medinsky is leading our delegation. There are no changes in the composition. It is the same composition," Peskov confirmed, responding to journalists seeking verification of earlier statements from the Turkish side that the talks would be held in Istanbul today.

The Kremlin spokesman indicated that the main focus of the upcoming round would be the draft memoranda exchanged between the two sides during the second round of talks.

“The main issues to be discussed will be related to the draft memoranda exchanged [by the parties] during the second round,” he said.

Additionally, discussions are expected to cover the ongoing mutual exchange of prisoners and the remains of deceased individuals, a matter both sides consider critical.

“There will be a discussion on the continuation of the very important process of mutual exchanges. If necessary, of course, any other issues will be raised. Such decisions will be made by the heads of the delegations,” Peskov explained, when asked about the full scope of topics on the table in this third round of negotiations.

He further noted that the ongoing efforts to agree on the memoranda constitute the groundwork for a potential summit between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine—an initiative that Kyiv has been actively pushing for.

“All the work that needs to be done to agree on memoranda [with peace proposals] is preparation for the meeting,” Peskov said. “Without doing all this complex work, it is hardly advisable to schedule meetings in detail.”

He added, “Otherwise, this rough, very complex and very capacious work will have to be done at the highest level.”

By Tamilla Hasanova