The meeting in Istanbul was a tactical victory for Putin — New York Times

The Russian-Ukrainian meeting in Istanbul was a tactical victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The New York Times writes about this.

At today's direct talks in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine has agreed on a large-scale prisoner exchange. However, Moscow and Kiev failed to agree on a temporary ceasefire or a meeting of the heads of the two countries, which is a sign of how far they are still from each other in ending the conflict, the newspaper writes.

Nevertheless, she considers these negotiations a tactical victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"From the very beginning, it was not expected that the Istanbul talks would lead to any major breakthroughs. But this meeting was a tactical victory for Putin, who managed to start negotiations without first agreeing to a ceasefire on the battlefield, which Ukraine and almost all of its Western supporters sought as a precondition for negotiations,"the publication says.

Despite the encouraging talks at the beginning of the week, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that nothing significant will happen until he meets with Putin. On Friday, Trump said he could call the Russian leader and meet with him "as soon as we can agree on this," the newspaper recalls.