MOSCOW

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia and the US focused exclusively on the topic of normalizing the work of diplomatic missions during today's talks in Istanbul and did not discuss settling the Ukraine conflict.

"These are negotiations between the Foreign Ministry and the State Department solely on the regulation and normalization of bilateral relations," Peskov told a news briefing in Moscow.

The second round of talks between the US and Russia began earlier in the day in Istanbul and has so far lasted over three hours.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that delegations would meet to address efforts to "further stabilize the operations of their bilateral missions."

The talks, taking place at the residence of the Russian consul general in Istanbul, are expected to last several hours but are unlikely to be as long as the previous round, which lasted more than six hours.

The Russian delegation is led by Russia's ambassador to the US, Alexander Darchiev, with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter leading the US team.

Ahead of the meeting, Darchiev announced that some progress had already been made on a number of issues.