Location at a glance: Kyiv and Moscow start meetings – anger on the corruption law

Almost three and a half years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, representatives of both countries today want to continue their recent direct discussions in Istanbul. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj has already subdued the expectations of the new round of negotiations. According to his information, it will not be a ceasefire this time, but among other things about a prisoner exchange. Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Ukraine took to the streets in the evening who fear the independence of corruption investigators in the country.

In the evening, Selenskyj had signed a law that circumcised the powers of the two anti -corruption authorities NABU and SAP – and, according to the opposition, takes independence. The head of the national anti -corruption office, Semen Krywonos, warned that the law previously passed by Parliament endangers the desired accession of Ukraine to the European Union.

A spokesman for the EU Commission was concerned about the developments. According to the media, thousands of people demonstrated in Kiev, Lwiw (Lemberg), Odessa and Dnipro. According to the non -governmental organization Transparency International, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.

Selenskyj wants to drive a prisoner exchange

For the talks in Istanbul, Selenskyj said that the expansion of the prisoner exchange and the withdrawal of children that Russia had deported from the occupied areas was primarily for Kiev. In addition, the meeting of the preparation of a summit between him and Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin should serve. A ceasefire can only be negotiated at the level of the heads of state. The Kremlin had not excluded such a meeting, but demands an agreement on a peace plan in advance.

In his video message, which he only published on platform X at night, Selenskyj said: “The task is to work on an armistice. That is what the whole world is for Russia.

The Russian delegation is again cited by Presidential advisor and ex-cultural minister Vladimir Medinski. Chief negotiator on the Ukrainian side remains after his resignation as Minister of Defense Rustem Umjerow. Selenskyj had appointed him the secretary of the National Security Council and commissioned him to draw up the new delegation.

Previously prisoner exchanges and returns dead soldiers

It has already been the third round of direct discussions between the warring parties since May. Previously there had been no negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022. At the previous meetings in May and June, the negotiators agreed a great exchange of prisoners of war. Young soldiers under the age of 25 and seriously wounded fighters have recently come free.

In addition, Moscow and Kyiv agreed on the backover of the fallen. According to its own information, Russia has handed over 7,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev in this context – and also received some corpses. There is no information about the number of prisoners exchanged.

So far, Russia has not moved away from his maximum demands for peace, including the waiver of Ukraine on NATO accession and the complete withdrawal Kiev troops from the areas annexed by Moscow Donetsk, Luhansk, Saporischschja and Cherson. Russia had already annexed the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014. The country has been waging a destructive war of attack against Ukraine for more than three years.

The United States also advocates direct discussions. “We continue to encourage direct conversations between Russia and Ukraine to achieve comprehensive ceasefire and a possible peace solution on the negotiating channels,” said the spokeswoman for the US State Department, Tammy Bruce.

Moscow ties in armistice on conditions

According to the meeting of the delegations in Istanbul, the Kremlin expects an approximation of the previously opposing positions of Moscow and Kiev on the conditions for a ceasefire. However, “great diplomatic work” is necessary, said Peskow. He does not count on a “breakthrough from the series Wunder”.

Unconditional ceasefire, as already proposed by US President Donald Trump in March, rejected Putin – unlike Selenskyj. He justified this with worries about recovery and reorganization of the Ukrainian troops. Instead, Russia plans to continue its advance until there is a final peace solution.

The Russian leadership insists that the position papers should be discussed in the third round of negotiations via possible ways to peace that the warring parties had handed over. The ideas on both sides are far apart.

Protests in Kyiv and other cities against law

Meanwhile, the head of the national anti -corruption office, Krywonos, warned of the loss of independence from organs to fight corruption in Ukraine. “We are categorical against it,” he said, according to local media, in Kiev with a view to the adoption of the new law.

Critics have been increasingly accusing Authoritarian tendencies. A spokesman for the EU Commission said in Brussels that the EU was concerned about the latest Ukraine measures. NABU and SAP are of crucial importance for the Ukraine reform agenda and would have to work independently to combat corruption.

Selenskyj said in his video message “the infrastructure for fighting corruption will work. Only without Russian influence, it has to be freed from it”. For years, officials who had fled from Ukraine have lived for some reasons abroad – “in very beautiful countries and without legal consequences – and that is not normal”.

After the 2014 trial overwestern overthrow, a system of authorities to combat corruption was created in Ukraine, especially with the help of the EU and the USA. This should help to combat the notorious bribery in administration and politics.