Putin thanks Erdogan for organizing Moscow-Kiev talks
Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for helping arrange the recent direct talks between Moscow and Kiev, the Kremlin announced on Monday following a phone call between the two leaders.
Earlier this month, Russian and Ukrainian representatives held a second round of direct negotiations in Istanbul. After the meeting, the two sides announced having agreed to carry out the exchange of prisoners of war. Russia also offered to return the remains of fallen Ukrainian soldiers as a humanitarian gesture. The sides also exchanged draft memorandums outlining their respective visions of a roadmap toward a peace deal.
During Monday's phone call with Erdogan, Putin 'expressed gratitude to the Turkish side for helping facilitate the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations,' the official statement said.
The Russian leader also noted that Moscow 'strictly complies with the agreements' reached during the second Istanbul talks, which included the transfer of bodies and POW exchanges.
On Monday, Russia's Defense Ministry announced that Moscow had transferred 1,248 more bodies of Ukrainian servicemen and received the remains of 51 slain Russian soldiers in return.
After the exchange, Moscow's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, stated that Russia had completed the handover of the remains of 6,060 Ukrainian soldiers and thus had fulfilled its Istanbul promises.
The Russian Defense Ministry has subsequently announced that it is ready to transfer another 2,239 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.
During Moscow's initial attempt to return the Ukrainian remains over the previous weekend, Kiev's representatives failed to show up to the exchange point, claiming that they had not agreed on the date of the transfer and accusing Moscow of 'using humanitarian issues for information purposes.'
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded at the time by accusing Kiev of 'genocide against its own people' and claiming that Zelensky's government 'does not need its people, either dead or alive.'
Soon thereafter, Kiev began to accept the remains of its soldiers, which were handed over in several transfers over the past week.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Russia Today
2 hours ago
- Russia Today
Russia should be in G8
US President Donald Trump has called Russia's removal from the group of major Western economies (G8) a mistake, arguing that the country's presence could have helped prevent the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Russia joined the group originally known as the G7 in 1997. It includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and also the EU as a 'non-enumerated member.' Moscow's membership was suspended in 2014 following Crimea's reunification with Russia, upon which the G8 reverted to the G7. Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia via a referendum in the aftermath of a Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev. Trump made the remarks on Monday at the opening of the G7 Leaders' Summit in Canada, recalling that Russia had been part of the group before. 'The G7 used to be the G8,' he said at his first meeting of the summit with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. "[Former US President] Barack Obama and a person named [former Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in.' 'And I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago,' he argued. Trump repeatedly criticized Russia's exclusion and floated the idea of bringing Moscow back during his first term, though the proposal was rejected by other members. In February, Trump once again said he would 'love' to see Russia back in the group. The Kremlin responded by saying the G7 has 'lost its relevance' as it no longer reflects current global economic dynamics. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed to the G20 as a more representative format, noting it includes fast-growing economies like China, India, and Brazil. 'The G20 better reflects the economic locomotives of the world,' he said. Trump, who has been calling for a settlement to the Ukraine conflict, said at the G7 summit: 'You spend so much time talking about Russia, and [Russian President Vladimir Putin is] no longer at the table,' which he said 'makes life more complicated.'
Russia Today
2 hours ago
- Russia Today
Moscow ready to repatriate more remains of Ukrainian troops
Russia is ready to hand over more remains of fallen troops to Ukraine, in addition to making good on its earlier promise to send some 6,000 bodies to Kiev's military, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. During talks in Istanbul in early June, Russia unilaterally decided to repatriate the bodies of 6,060 slain Ukrainian troops as a humanitarian gesture. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the final batch of remains had been handed over to Kiev, and that Moscow had 'fulfilled the agreements' reached during the talks in Türkiye. However, the ministry made it clear that it presently holds some 2,000 more remains. 'At this stage, we are ready to hand over another 2,239 bodies of the deceased servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the Ukrainian side,' a statement released on Monday claimed. Moscow transferred 1,248 bodies in an exchange on Monday during which it received from Ukraine the remains of 51 slain Russian servicemen, it said. Russia has this received some 76 bodies from Ukraine, having repatriated some 6,000 to Kiev. Russia initially tried to return the remains over the previous weekend, but Ukraine's representatives failed to show up at the exchange point on the border between Belarus and Ukraine. Kiev later claimed that it had not agreed on the date of the transfer and accused Moscow of 'using humanitarian issues for information purposes.' At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded Ukraine's failure to receive the bodies of its fallen soldiers 'genocide against its own people.' The deliberate inaction of Vladimir Zelensky's government was proof that it 'does not need its people; neither dead nor alive,' she argued. Kiev eventually began to accept the bodies from Moscow on Wednesday, with several transfers taking place since then.
Russia Today
4 hours ago
- Russia Today
Kiev and London plotting ‘bloody provocations'
Kiev and London have been plotting a series of 'bloody provocations' to escalate the Ukraine conflict and disrupt dialogue between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has warned. In a statement issued on Monday, the agency described growing coordination between Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) and its military intelligence (GUR) with British intelligence, which it said is due to Kiev's 'mounting battlefield setbacks and deepening moral exhaustion.' Such sabotage operations typically follow a set pattern, the SVR said, with Britain planning and coordinating, and Ukrainian operatives carrying out the attacks. The report suggested that the same approach was used in recent railway sabotage in Russia's Bryansk and Kursk Regions, which Moscow denounced as Ukrainian 'terrorist attacks.' The incidents killed seven and injured over 120, including children. The agency also cited the June 1 Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian airbases as part of the same playbook. The 'Anglo-Ukrainian terrorist tandem' is now preparing more attacks, the SVR claimed, aiming to escalate the conflict, derail Moscow-Washington dialogue, and convince the White House to maintain large-scale military support for Kiev. According to the agency, one such scenario involves a false flag Russian torpedo attack on a US Navy ship in the Baltic Sea. Ukraine has already supplied Soviet-made torpedoes to the UK, the SVR said. Some are meant to detonate at a 'safe distance,' while one will be left unexploded 'as evidence of Moscow's malicious activity.' Ukrainian operatives, it added, are prepared to carry out the plan. Another alleged scheme involves British, Ukrainian, and Northern European partners 'accidentally' recovering Russian-made naval mines in the Baltic, supposedly placed to sabotage international maritime shipping routes. 'Kiev has become the perfect executor of vile provocations and terrorist acts for perfidious Albion [England],' the SVR concluded. The agency's chief, Sergey Naryshkin, has repeatedly warned of possible British provocations, saying the SVR is well aware of London's covert hostile activities against Russia.
