The second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul is over. Russia has offered a ceasefire for 2-3 days in certain parts of the front. The two sides agreed to work on a new prisoner exchange. Kiev proposed a new round of talks to be held between 20 and 30 June.

After the meeting, Serhiy Kislytsia - a member of the Ukrainian delegation - said Russia had rejected an unconditional ceasefire.

Later on 2 June, Volodymyr Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, said:

"We proposed a special ceasefire for two or three days in some areas of the front line so that commanders could collect the bodies of their soldiers."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during a meeting with NATO leaders in Lithuania, said, "The delegations exchanged documents through the Turkish side and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of war."

The Ukrainian president also pointed out that Vladimir Putin should not be rewarded for his invasion.

"The key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor should not receive any reward for the war. Putin should receive nothing that would justify his aggression," Zelensky said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Ermak later said the Ukrainian delegation had handed the Russian side a list of children "illegally deported" from Moscow during its invasion and demanded their return.

"We are talking about hundreds of children that Russia illegally deported, forcibly transferred or kept in temporarily occupied territories," Ermak wrote on social media.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Kiev delegation, said the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded prisoners of war and those under 25, as well as the remains of 6,000 slain soldiers.

"We agreed to exchange all seriously wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war. The second category is young soldiers who are between the ages of 18 and 25. We also agreed to return 6,000 bodies of dead soldiers," Umerov said.

He also suggested that Kiev and Moscow hold another round of talks with Russia before the end of June.

"We propose to the Russian side to hold a meeting by the end of this month, from June 20 to 30," the Ukrainian minister said.

The talks, hosted by Turkish officials, follow the first round of negotiations on 16 May. The first meeting resulted in an agreement on the largest prisoner exchange of the war, but without any tangible progress towards a peace agreement. | BGNES