Istanbul: Russia is demanding Ukraine cede all of its eastern Donbas region, but would be willing to freeze the conflict in the south of the country along current front lines, Turkiye’s top diplomat has said.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, and has claimed to have annexed five of the country’s regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, along with Crimea, which it seized in 2014.
At peace talks in Istanbul this year, Russia’s negotiators demanded Ukraine pull out of those regions entirely as a precondition to ending the conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.
But following a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, Moscow has scaled back its demands, Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
“Now they have given up on that demand and are staying on the contact lines, except for one region ... There is currently a preliminary (agreement) regarding the return of 25-30 percent of Donetsk and maintaining the contact line in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” Fidan said in an interview with TGRT Haber on Thursday.
It was not clear who that agreement was between. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, though President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said Kyiv would need to secure the return of land through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.
Russia has had total control of Crimea since 2014 and already occupies practically the entire Lugansk region.
Though Moscow controls most of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukraine holds the regional capitals there.
Asked about Fidan’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “deliberately not disclosing all the details of the conversation between the two presidents in Alaska” as doing so would hinder the peace process.
The claimed shift in Russia’s position had previously been reported based on briefings by anonymous officials.
Turkiye has hosted three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in recent months that have failed to break the deadlock.
Though a deadly strike on Kyiv that killed at least 23 people on Thursday further set back progress toward peace, Fidan hailed some diplomatic movement.
“The fact they have stated this themselves and have agreed to have it guaranteed by a security mechanism in principle ... actually provides a truly remarkable framework in this war,” he added.
However, he acknowledged it would be difficult for Ukraine to give up its territory, including heavily fortified terrain that could leave Ukraine vulnerable.
“Once that territory is given up, the remaining area becomes a bit difficult to protect strategically,” he said.
“But when you factor in security mechanisms and guarantees, you have to look at how the issue will unfold.”
Turkiye says Russia scales back Ukraine territorial demands
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Turkiye says Russia scales back Ukraine territorial demands
- Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory
Russia jails soldiers who killed pro-Kremlin American
- Court in Russian-held Donetsk found the soldiers guilty of beating Russell Bentley, 64, to death in April 2024, after they mistook him for a US saboteur
- Bentley — who served in the US army in his youth — had been granted Russian nationality and portrayed himself as the only American fighting for Moscow
MOSCOW: A court in Russian-controlled Ukraine sentenced four Russian soldiers to jail on Monday for the killing of an American communist who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014.
Moscow rarely punishes its soldiers in Ukraine for committing crimes, portraying them as national heroes at home.
The court in Russian-held Donetsk found the soldiers guilty of beating Russell Bentley, 64, to death in April 2024, after they mistook him for a US saboteur.
They then put his body in the back of a car and blew it up.
Bentley — known as “Texas” — was a local celebrity in the city of Donetsk, where he lived, and his disappearance sparked outrage.
The self-styled communist often made social media clips backing Moscow’s Ukraine campaign, produced content for Russia’s state-backed media and had fought alongside pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Two of the soldiers — Major Vitaly Vansyatsky and Lt. Andrei Iordanov — were sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony and stripped of their military titles. Sergeant Vladislav Agaltsev was handed 11 years while another soldier was given 1.5 years for “concealing crimes.”
The court said the troops did not know Bentley and detained him as he prepared to film the consequences of a Ukrainian strike, thinking he was a spy.
It said the soldiers “reported to their military unit command on the discovery of a saboteur,” before putting him in a car with a bag on his head, where they “beat and tortured” him to “get a confession” — ultimately killing him.
They then put his body in the trunk and blew up the car, the court said.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine have long been accused by Kyiv and international rights groups of torturing captives.
Bentley — who served in the US army in his youth — had been granted Russian nationality and portrayed himself as the only American fighting for Moscow.
In 2022, he told Newsweek that he had several times been “within seconds or inches of death” but added that: “I believe in guardian angels because of how lucky I’ve been here.”
