Russia took weeks to present to Ukraine with a “memorandum” setting out its conditions for a ceasefire, as well as key guidelines for a comprehensive treaty to end the 3-year-old war.

After Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian air bases, the two sides talked for less than an hour in Istanbul, and a halt to the fighting seems out of reach for now.

It restated Moscow's demands that Ukraine become a neutral country - ruling out membership of NATO - and that it protect the rights of Russian speakers, make Russian an official language and enact a legal ban on glorification of Nazism. Ukraine rejects the Nazi charge as absurd and denies discriminating against Russian speakers.