Ukraine and Russia Meet in Türkiye for Peace Talks After Launching Major Attacks

Asharq Al-Awsat

2 days ago

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine gathered in Türkiye on Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war after a string of major attacks over the weekend.
Ukraine said Sunday it launched a spectacular surprise attack on five Russian airbases thousands of kilometers (miles) apart, ranging from air bases close to Moscow to targets in Russia's Arctic, Siberia, and Far East. The targets were more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) from Ukraine.
More than 40 Russian warplanes were destroyed, Ukraine claimed, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a 'brilliant operation' that involved more than a year of planning.
Meanwhile, Russia on Sunday launched the biggest number of drones — 472 — on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine's air force said, in an apparent effort to overwhelm air defenses.
US-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have failed. Ukraine accepted that step, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Sunday that 'Russia is attempting to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to make additional battlefield gains.'
International concerns about the war's consequences, as well as trade tensions, drove Asian share prices lower Monday while oil prices surged.
Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war.
The first round of talks, held on May 17, also in Istanbul, ended after less than two hours. While both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, there was no breakthrough.
The Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was in Istanbul for Monday's meeting, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said in a message posted on the Ukrainian Embassy WhatsApp group.
The Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, arrived Sunday evening, Russian state media reported.
Turkish officials said the meeting would start at 1 p.m. local time, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan presiding over the talks and officials from the Turkish intelligence agency also present.
However, Ukrainian spokesperson Tykhyi said the start would be at midday local time. It was not immediately possible to clarify the discrepancy.
Fierce fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other's territory with deep strikes.
Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday.
Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, including one that hit near a school, the city's mayor said.
One missile landed near an apartment building, while the second struck a road near the school, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement and published a photo of a wide crater.
'Standing next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been,' Terekhov wrote. 'A few more meters and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes and cars, buses would have been on the road.'
No casualties were reported.