Istanbul, July 26 (IANS) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed that he plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump this week in an effort to organize a high-level peace summit in Istanbul.
“In the coming period – possibly within this week – we will hold further talks with President Putin and also with President Trump,” Erdogan told reporters on Friday. “We will see if we can bring these leaders together in Istanbul. That is our effort.”
Erdogan noted that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had already held separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian delegations ahead of the third round of Ukraine crisis talks in Istanbul on Wednesday. Before the talks began, the Ukrainian delegation also met Erdogan in Ankara.
The latest round of negotiations resulted in an agreement for another prisoner exchange, but there was no consensus on ceasefire terms or a presidential summit. Ukraine has proposed a leaders’ meeting by the end of August that would bring together Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with participation from Trump and Erdogan.
While Kyiv is pushing for a direct dialogue between Zelensky and Putin, the Russian side has made it clear that such a meeting will not take place until certain preconditions are met.
“It is clear that Russia is still not ready to end the war — but there is still time to reconsider and put an end to this madness,” said Andriy Yermak, head of Zelensky’s office, in a statement.
He added that some progress had been made on humanitarian issues, such as prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children taken during the conflict.
Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, admitted that “no progress has been made yet” toward a ceasefire. Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky echoed this sentiment, saying, “The positions are quite apart from each other.”
Previous talks, held on May 16 and June 2 in Istanbul, have led to large prisoner exchanges but no breakthrough on halting the war. Since the last meeting, Russia has circulated a memo demanding that Ukraine disarm and recognize Moscow’s annexation of four occupied regions as conditions for a ceasefire.
During Wednesday’s discussions, Ukraine reiterated its priorities: an immediate ceasefire, silence along the entire front, and a complete halt to attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to push for peace in the region, criticizing Putin in a recent BBC interview as “disappointing” while also emphasizing he is “not done” with dialogue. He has announced a new US-brokered plan to send weapons to Ukraine, financed by NATO allies, and warned that he would impose new sanctions on Russia if a ceasefire is not achieved within 50 days.
Despite these efforts, Russia continues to launch drone and missile strikes across Ukraine, targeting multiple cities as the war drags on.
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