US, Russia discuss embassy staffing in Istanbul talks

US and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks about restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The talks, the second of their kind, come after President Donald Trump reached out to Russia following the start of his second term and offered better ties if it wound down fighting in Ukraine.

Washington said it renewed concerns to Russia on rules prohibiting local staff from working at the embassy in Moscow, which Russia introduced in 2021.

In a statement after the talks, the State Department said the delegations also moved to formalise an agreement on banking access for the two countries' diplomats, despite the US sanctions on Russia.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have made friendly statements about each other, although the US leader has recently voiced frustration at the Kremlin, with little progress made on Washington's push to end the three-year war in Ukraine.

Russia's newly appointed ambassador the United States, Alexander Darchiev, who took part in the talks, told state media that they were held in a "positive atmosphere".

He said they had agreed to "loosen" rules on the movement of diplomats and on giving each other's envoys visas.

"The Russian side emphasised the priority of the speedy return of the diplomatic real estate confiscated by the US authorities and belonging to the Russian Federation," he said, according to the TASS news agency.

He also said the Russian delegation pushed for a resumption of flights between Moscow and Washington.

Darchiev - a career diplomat known for his hawkish statements on the West - said a day earlier that the talks would focus on "getting rid of the toxic legacy of the previous US administration".

The State Department earlier stressed that the talks only focus on bilateral Russian-American relations and are not related to talks on Ukraine -- as Kyiv and Europe fear Moscow and Washington will strike a deal on the conflict without them.

"There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not -- absolutely not -- on the agenda," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.

Since Trump's return to the White House, Russian and US officials have been engaged in several tracks of talks, ranging from negotiations over a Ukraine ceasefire and restoring economic ties to technical issues like those on the agenda on Thursday.

Both sides have been operating their embassies with skeleton staff for years due to diplomatic expulsions.

Moscow also wants the United States to return diplomatic property it claims has been "seized", including two summer houses used by embassy officials.