US, Russia start closed talks in Istanbul on embassy operations, media reports

U.S. and Russian delegations have begun another round of talks regarding the work of embassies at the Russian Consulate in Istanbul on April 10, Russian state-controlled news agency TASS reported.

The consultations between Washington and Moscow will be held in a closed format and are expected to last “several hours,” TASS wrote, citing an unnamed source.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on April 9 that the talks will be focused “solely” on embassy operations, “not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall."

Russian and U.S. officials previously held a meeting on embassy operations in Istanbul on Feb. 27 and two rounds of talks on peace in Ukraine in Saudi Arabia.

Last week, Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev arrived in Washington to hold talks with U.S. officials on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dmitriev met with Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, at the White House.

President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged on April 3 that U.S. and Russian officials were holding private conversations about the possibility of a full ceasefire in Ukraine.

Kyiv has said for weeks that it is ready to begin a complete 30-day ceasefire, in line with a proposal from Washington, as long as Russia accepts the same terms. Russia has so far refused, only agreeing to partial ceasefires on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea in exchange for restored access to international markets.

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The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell