We know by now or should know that Russia has no intention of agreeing a just and lasting peace deal brokered by others (US and Europe). It is as clear as it can be. Putin will only agree capitulation by Ukraine. He does not want to negotiate a deal. He wants an agreement that he can take huge swathes of Ukraine in the east plus other terms such as Ukraine being barred from joining NATO. He does not want a ‘just’ peace. He wants what he wants – no compromise. We know it.

All leaders engaged in these peace talks should stop wasting time and stop pretending that they are going to find an agreement for peace. It won’t happen.

Starmer likes to get out of the UK at any opportunity to meet his mates; the leaders of other countries. He enjoys that (as a kind of international club) far more than wrestling with the UK’s intractable financial problems. A failing country. A broken country made worse by his chronic Labour government. He is constantly slagged off in the news media in the UK and he is horribly unpopular. He seeks a respite from it in these international meetings of which he has made more than 40 in 18 months!

As for Trump his objectives are:

• To win the Nobel Peace Prize 🙄😱😉
• To make bucket loads of money for himself
• To make bucket loads of money for the US
• While exploiting Ukraine and…
• To facilitate Putin’s exploitation of Ukraine in terms of coal and oil and rare earth minerals etc.

Ukraine is wealthy in terms of resources; ready to be exploited as part of a ‘peace deal’. If it is not these reasons for the other Western leaders it is to socialise with each other as if it were a big, international men’s club. As mentioned they must realise that it is a pointless exercise in terms of achieving a peace agreement.

The only way to end the war is for Ukraine to beat Russia on the battlefield and/or Russia runs out of puff – lack of personnel as they have all been killed or injured and no one wants to join up. Potential conscripts are leaving the country. And of course there are huge financial pressures in Russia as there are in Ukraine. Money issues may end the war which costs $100 billion annually on the Russian side. Slightly less for Ukraine but still huge sums of money.

For the record here are some details of the meetings/talks held so far (courtesy good ole AI – Chat GPT.

Quick summary (best-effort) of talks:

• Direct Russia ⇄ Ukraine negotiation rounds (the formal rounds that were reported in 2022 and the resumptions later): at least 7 distinct rounds in March 2022 (starting 28 Feb then multiple rounds through March, including the Istanbul/Antalya talks) and several sporadic resumptions later — so conservatively ~8–12 direct bilateral negotiation meetings across 2022–2025.
• Major multilateral peace summits / internationally hosted peace meetings (examples widely reported): Jeddah summit (Saudi Arabia, Aug 2023); Ukraine peace summit / Zelenskyy initiatives (2024); U.S.–Russia talks in Saudi Arabia (Feb 2025) and Alaska (Aug 2025) / White House multilateral meeting (Aug 2025) — at least 4–6 major summits.
• Other diplomacy (envoy trips, bilateral talks between third countries and parties, working groups, technical meetings): dozens (numerous US, EU, Saudi, Turkish, Chinese, UN and regional contacts and working-group sessions are reported).

Bottom line (portable answer): if you mean every reported, significant meeting or summit specifically convened to seek a peace settlement, the count is not a single tidy number but is best expressed as ranges:

• Direct Russia–Ukraine negotiation rounds: ~8–12 (conservative).
• Major international peace summits / high-level multilateral meetings about peace: ~4–6.
• If you include all diplomatic contacts, envoy visits and working-group meetings: many dozens (ongoing across 2022–2025).

[Also written by AI] Here’s a clear, dated, sourced list of the direct Russia ⇄ Ukraine negotiation rounds (the meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations themselves), from the opening rounds in 2022 through the documented resumption in 2025. I list date, place, and one short note about each meeting and cite the reporting I used.

Dated list — direct Russia–Ukraine negotiation rounds

1. 28 February 2022 — Belarus (near the Belarus–Ukraine border, Gomel region)
   First face-to-face meeting after the 24 Feb 2022 invasion; ended with no immediate agreement.
2. 3 March 2022 — Belarus (border area)
   Second round; humanitarian corridors and evacuation passage were discussed but no ceasefire agreement.
3. 7 March 2022 — Belarus (border area)
   Third round; Moscow restated major demands (neutrality, constitutional change, recognition of Crimea/Donbas positions).
4. 10 March 2022 — Antalya, Turkey (foreign-minister level meeting: Lavrov ↔ Kuleba)
   First high-level contact between the two foreign ministers since the invasion; no breakthrough. (Often counted among early negotiation rounds because it was a direct contact between sides.)
5. 14–17 March 2022 — Video conference / follow-up rounds
   Video/remote negotiations continued (Ukraine’s team reported a 15-point framework being discussed; Zelensky later said positions were “sounding more realistic”).
6. 29–30 March 2022 — Istanbul, Türkiye (Istanbul talks / Istanbul Communiqué)
   Delegations met in Istanbul and produced the so-called Istanbul Communiqué / security-guarantees framework (a draft treaty outline), though no final agreement was reached.

(Negotiations that followed in spring 2022 involved exchanges of draft text and discussion but essentially the bilateral direct rounds of early 2022 wound down by mid-April as the fighting and political positions hardened.)

7. 16 May 2025 — Istanbul, Turkey (resumption of direct talks after ~3 years)
   First direct meeting between delegations since 2022; parties agreed to a large prisoner exchange and to continue talks. Reporting identifies this as the “first direct talks in more than three years.”
8. 2 June 2025 — Istanbul, Türkiye (second round of the resumed talks)
   Follow-up round in Istanbul; further memorandums and arrangements (including prisoner-exchange mechanics) were discussed — no ceasefire deal announced.

Short note on counting

• The list above tracks direct, reported negotiation rounds between Russian and Ukrainian delegations (including a few minister-level direct contacts that media count as part of the negotiation sequence).
• Many other meetings have taken place that are not “direct Russia–Ukraine rounds” — e.g., third-party-hosted summits, multilateral peace conferences, many bilateral contacts between mediators and the parties, and numerous working-group/technical meetings. If you include all of those, the count becomes “dozens” or more and requires a different breakdown.

Current – December 20th 2025:

There is an ongoing peace-related meeting in Miami right now, and it’s part of current diplomacy around the Russia–Ukraine war. Here’s what the latest reporting says about it:

What’s happening in Miami (another waste of time it seems to me thanks to the intransigence of the Russians)

• US and Russian officials are meeting in Miami this weekend to discuss a U.S.-proposed peace plan aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. These talks are described by both sides as “constructive” and continuing over multiple days.
• The U.S. special envoy (Steve Witkoff) and Jared Kushner have been leading discussions with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, exploring elements of a potential settlement framework.
• Ukrainian and U.S. delegates have also met in Miami as part of this broader set of negotiations on a revised 20-point plan.
• Russia has publicly criticized European and Ukrainian edits to the U.S. peace proposal, even as these Miami discussions process.

How to interpret these talks

This Miami meeting isn’t exactly a direct Russia–Ukraine bilateral peace negotiation round (like the formal rounds we listed earlier), but rather U.S.-led diplomatic meetings involving:

• Russian officials
• U.S. envoys
• Ukrainian representatives
• Possibly European delegates
  with the goal of shaping or advancing a peace settlement framework.

Because Russia and Ukraine may not be in the same room together for all of these, some sources note that true triangular/trilateral talks are not yet fully realized.

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