Ukraine-Russia peace talks end in less than a hour with no cease-fire

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian and Russian officials ended their third round of peace negotiations in under an hour Wednesday — falling short of establishing a cease-fire but agreeing to a prison swap.

The talks took place in Istanbul just over a week after President Trump threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with “very severe tariffs” if he doesn’t commit to a cease-fire in Ukraine within 50 days.

The anticipated talks lasted about 40 minutes, according to Russian news agency TASS.

The two sides agreed to have a prisoner exchange of 1,200 people, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov said, The Kyiv Independent reported.

“We are working on priority issues. Our priority is always people, cease-fire and meeting of leaders,” Umerov said after the talks.

The Ukrainian side also proposed a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin. If such a sitdown happens, it would be the first time the leaders would speak since the start of the war on Feb. 24, 2022.

Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky said topics of discussion would first have to be identified for Putin to agree to a face-to-face negotiation, per The Kyiv Independent.

Medinsky said Moscow instead put forth having three online working groups to address political, military and humanitarian topics.

Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his desire to meet with Putin, but the Russian side has been tepid and has only sent lower-level officials so far.

The three negotiations thus far have successfully led to several prisoner exchanges, but have not brought about an end to the brutal war, as Moscow continues to drone strike Ukrainian cities.

The Kremlin indicated its desire to stick to its “goals” before going into the negotiations, with Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Sunday that Moscow is steadfast on holding up their interests.

“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear,” Peskov said.

Peskov was likely referring to a “peace memorandum” that the Russian delegation handed to their Ukrainian counterparts during the second round of talks on June 2.

The demands included Ukraine officially recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the full Russian annexation of Kherson, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk oblasts.

Under the demands, Ukraine would have to remove its troops from the four oblasts — and then demobilize the entire country, end all aspirations of joining NATO and other military alliances, make Russian the official language of Ukraine and ban additional Western military supplies and intelligence sharing.

Meanwhile, Zelensky has stressed that Ukraine needs to have security guarantees in place to ensure Moscow doesn’t invade again. He’s also maintained that Crimea is a part of Ukraine.

The three rounds of talks began after increasing pressure from Trump, who has promised to bring about the end of the war.

Trump announced July 14 that the US would be sending weapons to Ukraine via NATO, which would be funding the “billions” worth of equipment. The announcement included a mounting threat toward Putin — secondary sanctions on Russia if no peace was met in 50 days.

Putin has not publicly acknowledged Trump’s threat, while Zelensky told The Post in a July 16 interview that he would like to see Trump ramp up the pressure more.

“Putin has wasted President Trump’s time,” Zelensky charged. “I would very much like to see the United States, the Congress and the president put some pressure on this situation with sanctions and so the sooner, the faster it can be done, the better.”