The first time Ukraine and Russia held direct peace talks, it was March 2022 - and in that meeting, they agreed on a prisoner exchange.
Now, a second round of talks has been held in Istanbul, a day after a string of stunning long-range attacks by both sides that saw Ukraine launch a devastating drone assault on Russian air bases, and Russia hurl its largest drone attack of the war against Ukraine.
This latest round of talks has produced another agreement to swap prisoners of war and return the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is the leader of the Ukrainian delegation.
"We agreed to focus on specific categories rather than numbers. We agreed to exchange old for old, seriously wounded, and seriously sick prisoners of war."
Turkish officials have been keen to show this agreement as a positive, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Öncü Keçeli saying the talks did not end negatively, despite lasting just an hour and ending with no major breakthroughs on the issue of a ceasefire.
While Ukraine proposed a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky says that's not what Moscow wants.
"We have specifically proposed a ceasefire for two or three days in certain sections of the front. This will now be worked out by our military specialists with the Ukrainian ones. Why is a short ceasefire being implemented in certain areas, with drones being turned off and so on? So that commanders can pick up the bodies of their soldiers.”
That's not all Russia has asked for.
Russian media agency Interfax has reported seeing a memorandum saying Russia told Ukraine at the peace talks it would only agree to end the war if Ukraine accepts limits on the size of its army, and gives up big new chunks of territory - namely the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed as its own territory.
That has not been confirmed by Ukraine.
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya has only said they are yet to decide how to respond.
"We asked them directly if they were ready to react to our proposals that we handed over to them in written form a while ago. There was no follow up on the Russian side. As you can understand, we could not react to the Russian proposals because the Russian proposals were only literally given to us during the meeting."
Regardless, Ukraine has proposed holding more talks before the end of June, which the Defence Minister says should include their respective leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is willing to participate.
"I had a conversation with President Erdogan of Turkey and indeed, he signalled to me — asking how I would feel about a meeting of four leaders: himself, the US president (Donald Trump), (Vladimir) Putin, and me. I told him that I support a leaders’ summit, because I have the impression that a ceasefire won’t happen without such a meeting."
The call for another meeting comes despite Ukraine's concern that Russia is not serious about peace.
The Ukrainian President says further talks are not enough - and that sanctions against Russia are necessary to pressure them into stopping the war.
"It's important to seriously limit Russia's oil trade and its use of tankers. Sanctions, including secondary ones, tariffs and price caps can work and push Russia toward peace. Without pressure, Putin will just keep playing games with everyone who wants this war to end.”
Apart from the ceasefire terms, another sticking point is the fate of young people caught up in the war.
The Defence Minister says they want to exchange young soldiers aged 18 to 25 - and children forcibly taken into Russian territory.
"We have provided the other side with a list of several hundred Ukrainian children who were deported to Russia. This matter is a fundamental priority for us. If Russia is genuinely committed to the peace process, the return of at least half of the children from this list would be serving as a positive indication."
Vladimir Medinsky has called the list of children ridiculous.
He says the children were moved in order to protect them from fighting, maintaining they have been saved, not stolen.
"They must have watched the film Wag the Dog. If you want to bring out a tear, show an abandoned child, or better yet, a child with a kitten, that's what they're showing. In fact, we are talking about dozens of children, these are children who have not been kidnapped by anyone. There is not a single kidnapped child."
