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There have been talks of one kind or another since the first week of the war. They produced a draft peace in Istanbul in 2022 that was abandoned, prisoner exchanges, short truces, and since 2025 an American effort to broker an end. They have not produced a ceasefire, because each side still expects more from fighting than from the terms on offer.
The wider war, its history and each side's full account: The war in Ukraine.
On 5 September Russia and Ukraine agreed to pause strikes on capitals during talks in the United States. American envoys visited Kyiv on 6 September after talks with President Putin in Moscow. On 18 September Russia held votes in occupied Ukraine while Putin spoke on talks. On 22 September Macron, Trump and Zelensky met in New York as truce talks intensified. On 25 September the United States proposed Ukraine-Russia talks in the UAE, Zelensky said.
Territory. Russia wants recognition of what it holds and the rest of the Donbas handed over. Ukraine will accept a line of contact but not sign away land.
Alignment. Russia wants Ukraine barred from NATO and its army limited. Ukraine wants guarantees strong enough that the war cannot restart; the only ones it trusts are membership or Western troops, which are what Russia is fighting to prevent.
Order of steps. Ukraine and the Europeans want a ceasefire first and talks after. Russia wants the terms first, since the fighting is its leverage.
Everything else:. sanctions, the frozen Russian reserves, prisoners and deported children, the status of the Russian language and church, elections in Ukraine.
Kyiv's leaves out that it cannot retake the territory, that its law forbids negotiating with Putin, and the draft it initialled in Istanbul.
Moscow's leaves out that its terms amount to Ukraine's disarmament, that it demanded land it had not taken, and that it has answered each truce offer with new conditions.
Washington's leaves out its own interest in a deal before its elections and in business with Russia after.
The Europeans' leaves out that they have no plan of their own to end the war and cannot carry it without America.
Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.
Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.
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Ukraine has accepted every ceasefire proposed, without conditions, and Russia has refused each. Putin talks to buy time and to split America from Europe. A peace that rewards conquest invites the next invasion, of Ukraine or of someone else, and a paper guarantee is what Ukraine had in 1994.
The war could have ended in Istanbul in the spring of 2022; the West told Kyiv to fight on. A ceasefire without a settlement only lets Ukraine rearm, as Minsk did. The causes have to be removed: NATO on Russia's border, the treatment of Russian speakers, and a government in Kyiv whose mandate has run out. Russia is ready to talk and is winning in the meantime.
The killing has to stop, neither side can win, and both will have to give up something: Ukraine land, Russia its larger aims. America will broker but will not pay for the war without end.
Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, and nothing about Europe's security over Europe's head. A bad peace would be paid for by them.
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