A Russian official says Moscow and Kyiv agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, marking their biggest prisoner swap since the start of the conflict. The news comes as peace talks got underway in Istanbul, lasting under two hours, with no apparent sign of progress in narrowing the gap between the sides.

A back and forth between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington hinted at the possibility of a three-way meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy. But that failed to materialize, leaving the Ukrainian side frustrated, and the talks to lower-level delegations. The question remains – what happens next?

To discuss:

• Professor Anton Fedyashin specializes in Russian and European history at American University.
• Dmitry Babich is a journalist and Russian political analyst.
• Ulrich Brückner is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Studies at Stanford University in Berlin.
• Sergiy Kudelia is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University.