NEW YORK, May 16. /TASS/. The talks on a Ukrainian settlement that Russia held in Istanbul, Turkey, marked a tactical win for Moscow, the New York Times reported.
According to the report, the negotiations were not expected to yield any huge breakthroughs, and US President Donald Trump said as much, although he offered his support for the meeting.
"But the meeting was a tactical win for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who managed to start the talks without first agreeing to a battlefield ceasefire that Ukraine and almost all of its Western backers had sought as a precondition for negotiations," the newspaper wrote.
The NYT said the Trump administration is feeling disillusioned due to a lack of progress in the efforts to achieve peace.
"Despite encouraging the talks earlier in the week, Mr. Trump undercut them in comments on Thursday, saying that nothing meaningful would happen until he met with Mr. Putin. On Friday, Mr. Trump said he might call the Russian leader and would meet him ‘as soon as we can set it up,’" the report said.
At the talks earlier on Friday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchanged 1,000 prisoners each, present a vision of a possible ceasefire, spelling out details, and to continue communication. The head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, said Russia was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. He also said Ukraine had asked for direct talks between the leaders of the countries and Russia took the request "under advisement.".