Mapped: State of play in Ukraine as Kyiv and Moscow set to begin first direct talks since 2022
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will sit face-to-face for the first round of direct peace talks between the warring countries since March 2022.
Hopes of a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the Istanbul talks were dashed when the Kremlin revealed its list of delegates, confirming the Russian president would not be joining.
The Ukrainian president had offered to meet Putin in person for the first time since 2019, goading the Russian leader by questioning if he was brave enough to show up.
It is unclear whether Mr Zelensky – who is in Turkey for a meeting with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara – will join the talks. He previously said he was not prepared to talk to anyone but Putin.
The US yesterday said it would send special envoy Steve Witkoff and secretary of state Marco Rubio to the negotiations, but Donald Trump has excused himself.
Russia has rejected Ukraine’s repeated offer of a comprehensive, unconditional 30-day ceasefire which Mr Zelensky says would allow for proper peace negotiations to take place. Moscow says many of its maximalist demands have not been met.
As talks get underway on Thursday, here’s a look at the current state of play on the battlefield.
Russia focuses the majority of its attacks on Ukraine’s eastern frontline, particularly the Donetsk region where it launches dozens of attacks each day. It channelled the bulk of its forces towards the east and south, after withdrawing from northern Ukraine in the war’s early months.
Moscow’s war machine grinds forward in a war of attrition, suffering significant troop losses for the sake of relatively incremental territorial gains.
Russian advances have slowed in recent months, as Kyiv’s forces ferociously defend a heavily fortified frontline – and in recent weeks have even launched minor counterattacks of its own.
There has not been a great deal of movement on the eastern frontline in the past two years, but Russia continues to advance village-by-village.
Moscow claims it has pushed Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, after Ukrainian troops smashed through the border in a surprise incursion in August 2024. Kyiv said it had seized more than 1,000 square kilometres of the Russian region bordering northeast Ukraine.
Russian forces steadily pushed back for months, deploying thousands of North Korean troops sent by dictator Kim Jong-un to boost their manpower.
In March 2025, a rapid advance saw Ukrainian control over Kursk collapse, with Vladimir Putin claiming within weeks that Russia had driven Kyiv’s troops entirely from the region.
