Russian forces are pushing to create “buffer zones” along the border with Ukraine, the Kremlin has said, as fighting rages on in the wake of a third round of peace talks that again failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire, in a fourth year of war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments during a briefing on Thursday, signalling that Russia had no intention of de-escalating its war on Ukraine following a brief meeting Wednesday between delegations in Istanbul that lasted just 40 minutes.
Negotiators in the Turkish city discussed further prisoner swaps, but remained far apart on a ceasefire and a proposed face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sought by the latter.
At a news conference in Istanbul following the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said an exchange of prisoners had been carried out on the Ukraine-Belarus border, with about 250 people returned to each side.
More than 1,000 Ukrainians returned
Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange, saying in a post on social media that Wednesday’s prisoner swap – the ninth stage of an exchange process agreed to by the parties in Istanbul – meant that more than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners had been returned under the agreement.
“For a thousand families, this means the joy of embracing their loved ones again,” Zelenskyy said, adding that many of the prisoners had been in captivity for more than three years.
“It is important that the exchanges are ongoing and our people are coming home,” he said.
“We will continue doing everything possible to ensure that every one of our people returns from captivity.”
Drone and missile attacks
Following the brief meeting in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine continued their air attacks against each other, with Russian drones and missiles targeting Ukrainian territory overnight and casualties reported in Russia.
Russia launched 103 attack drones and four missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing three people in the Kharkiv region, Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Thursday. More than 10 others were wounded in Cherkasy, including a 9-year-old child, he added.
He noted that, just a day earlier, Ukraine’s delegation in Istanbul had reiterated its “proposal for an immediate and full ceasefire”.
“In response, Russian drones struck residential buildings and the Pryvoz market in Odesa, apartment blocks in Cherkasy, energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv region, a university gym in Zaporizhzhia,” he said.
“We will make every effort to ensure that diplomacy works,” he added. “But it is Russia that must end this war.”
Yesterday, at the meeting in Istanbul, the proposal for an immediate and full ceasefire was reiterated to the Russian side. In response, Russian drones struck residential buildings and the Pryvoz market in Odesa, apartment blocks in Cherkasy, energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv… pic.twitter.com/Ax9Q0xEM6z
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 24, 2025
In Russia, emergency officials in the Krasnodar region on the Black Sea said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in the Adler district near the resort city of Sochi, while a second woman was seriously injured, the Reuters news agency reported.
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