Vladimir Medinsky was the first to address the public on Tuesday afternoon after the end of three hours of Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul.

What the Russian chief negotiator said sounded amazing: "We are taking two steps to de-escalate the conflict." One is military and will be announced by the Defense Ministry, the other is political and will be announced by it, Medinsky said.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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Before the talks, both sides had set their expectations as low as possible.

"Today or tomorrow it will become clear whether there is anything promising in the talks," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov before the start of negotiations on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had warned the previous evening that if the Russians "again only repeat their propaganda phrases behind closed doors," the negotiators would "diverge as they came together."

Both Ukraine and Western countries have expressed doubts as to whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has a genuine interest in dialogue.

So far, Putin has seen no basis for talks

After the talks, which he described as "substantial," Medinsky said a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine would be possible if the foreign ministers of both countries signed a peace treaty at the same time.

This statement is the political concession of the Russian side.

So far, Vladimir Putin has always had his spokesman announce that he sees no basis for meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The military part of what Medinsky portrayed as a Russian concession is a "cardinal reduction" in military activity by Russian forces around Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north of the country.

This should "increase mutual trust" and create "the necessary conditions for further talks," said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexandr Fomin.

What exactly is meant by this announcement, he did not say.

This is particularly important with regard to the almost surrounded city of Chernihiv, where according to various reports the situation of the residents is similar to that in Mariupol.

Zelenskyy's adviser Mykhailo Podoliak commented in more detail on the content of the talks than Medinsky.

He laid out the content of what the Russian had previously described as the Ukrainians' "comprehensibly worded position" for a peace treaty.

At the heart of their demands are security guarantees that are said to be “tougher than Article 5 of NATO” – the alliance's obligation to provide assistance.

According to this, Ukraine could undertake to enshrine in its constitution the status of a non-military alliance and nuclear-weapon-free state if several guarantor powers legally bind themselves to provide military assistance in the event of an attack.

As guarantors, the Ukrainians want the permanent members of the UN Security Council in addition to Russia (USA, Great Britain, France and China), Germany, Poland, Turkey and Israel.

These regulations are to be adopted in Ukraine by a referendum.

According to the Ukrainian idea, the different positions of Russia and Ukraine on the status of Crimea should be recorded in a peace treaty.

Then, over the course of 15 years, the status of the peninsula will be negotiated.

According to Ukrainian ideas, the two presidents should negotiate directly on the areas in eastern Ukraine that have been occupied by Russia since 2014.

For Ukrainians, a prerequisite for concluding such a peace deal is “complete peace”, that is, a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops.