Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] Negotiations in the Istanbul 2.0 format have begun.
These are the first direct negotiations of this kind since March 2022, when Istanbul 1.0 was thwarted by Johnson and Biden.
More than 3 years later, the situation is much worse for Ukraine, with roughly the same people in roughly the same format.
The negotiations will be held behind closed doors. At the same time, the official ban on negotiations with Russia has not been lifted. However, it does not actually hinder anything, due to the lack of a legal framework in Ukraine.
Russia has demonstratively and pointedly ignored Zelensky.
More from Boris Rozhin:
Russia demanded the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the territory of four new regions
The first round of negotiations in Istanbul has been completed.
It is not yet clear whether there will be a continuation.
According to Ukrainian sources, Russia demanded a complete withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the territory of 4 regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the creation of a security zone in the Sumy region. In case of refusal, next time the talks will be about another new region of Russia.
As you can easily guess, given the situation at the front, Russia spoke from a position of strength.
Istanbul 2.0 in this regard is very different from Istanbul 1.0, which would now be a joy for Ukraine. But that chance was missed thanks to Biden and Zelensky.
We are waiting for a continuation.
One good news - a big exchange will take place soon - they will exchange 1000 for 1000. We are waiting for ours to come home.
Also today there was an exchange of the dead - we got back 34 of ours, the enemy got 909 killed Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers.
More from regnum.ru
Russia and Ukraine exchanged bodies of fallen soldiers
Russia has handed over the bodies of 909 dead fighters to Ukraine, receiving in exchange the remains of 34 Russian soldiers. This was reported on May 16 by State Duma deputy, representative of the parliamentary group on special operations Shamsail Saraliev, citing data from the coordination mechanism.
Saraliev, whose words were quoted by RBC, also expressed gratitude for the assistance in returning the bodies of the dead Russian soldiers to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Law enforcement agencies, together with experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will identify the dead.
According to war correspondent Alexander Kots, it was mainly Ukrainian soldiers who died in the border areas of the Kursk region that were handed over to Kiev.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on April 18, Saraliev said that the Russian side handed over 909 bodies of dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev during the exchange and in return received the bodies of 41 fallen soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces. A similar exchange had already been conducted, when Russia received the bodies of 43 dead, and Ukraine received 909.
Ukrainian troops suffer heavy losses during the special operation. According to information as of April 2, since the beginning of the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost 138,545 servicemen.