Russia says it’s ready to elevate delegations for Ukraine talks in Istanbul

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin made the statement to Russian propaganda media in an interview.

Galuzin claims that Russia seeks to resume direct Russia–Ukraine talks. He has noted “positive momentum” following the August 15 meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister says they “are ready to work on providing security guarantees to Ukraine, which must be non-nuclear, neutral, and outside any military bloc.”

Galuzin has added Ukraine’s leadership has “effectively rejected the need to address the root causes of the conflict, making it impossible to implement the rest of the agreements.”

Galuzin also said that at the last Russia–Ukraine meeting in Istanbul on July 23, Russia proposed forming three working groups on political, military, and humanitarian issues. Over a month has passed without a response. He lamented that Kyiv and its European sponsors so far show no interest in seeking peaceful solutions to the crisis. “Despite this, we are ready to continue the dialogue in Istanbul and open to discussing raising the level of our delegations,” he claimed.

• The Russian leader claimed he was supposedly ready to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — but only if Zelenskyy comes to Moscow. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called this a manipulation by Putin.
• On the same day, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposed holding a bilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia in Geneva.