Peace talks in Istanbul after Ukraine's audacious drone strike; Zelensky warns against rewarding Putin
ISTANBUL: Russia and Ukraine on Monday swapped plans for ending their three-year war during talks in Istanbul aiming to find a way out of Europe's largest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any deal must not "reward" Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but said Kyiv was willing to take the "necessary steps for peace".
Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia's invasion, but have yet to make progress towards an agreement.
Monday's talks come a day after Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil -- using drones to hit dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases thousands of kilometres behind the front line.
A first round of meetings in Istanbul last month yielded a large-scale prisoner exchange but no pause in the fighting, which has raged since Russia invaded in February 2022.
On Monday the delegations "exchanged documents through the Turkish side, and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of the war," Zelensky said at a press conference in Vilnius just after the talks in Istanbul concluded.
"The key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression," he added.
Opening the talks at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul -- an Ottoman imperial house on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury five-star hotel -- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the "eyes of the entire world" were watching.
Zelensky had said Kyiv was "ready to take the necessary steps for peace", though the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating positions have long appeared irreconcilable.
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Time of India
41 minutes ago
- Time of India
Ukraine, Russia hold peace talks but make no breakthrough after major attacks
Russia has said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks , after Moscow rejected Kyiv's call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul. The sides agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or so-called "memorandums", at the discussions, which lasted less than two hours. More than three years into Russia's offensive, which has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine, the two sides appear as irreconcilable as ever. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. 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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bhavnagar: Beautiful New Senior Apartments with Two Bedrooms Senior Apartments | Search Ads Search Now Undo "The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs," he added. Live Events Moscow demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive, according to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media. Kyiv had pressed for a full and unconditional ceasefire. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha on Tuesday denounced Russia for presenting "old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace" and for having "so far rejected any meaningful formats for a ceasefire". Peskov earlier also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States . "In the near future, it is unlikely," Peskov told reporters when asked about the chances of the leaders meeting, adding that such a summit could only happen after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reach an "agreement". The White House had said on Monday that US President Donald Trump was "open" to the idea, which is also backed by Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Targeting civilians Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of "deliberately" targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Russian border, that killed four people. Russian troops have accelerated their advance, seeking to establish what Putin called a "buffer zone" inside Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region. Zelensky posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road. The attack "says everything one needs to know about Russia's so-called 'desire' to end this war", he added, calling for "decisive actions" from the United States and Europe to push Russia into a ceasefire. "Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence," he said. A seven-year-old girl was among 20 wounded, with doctors "fighting for her life", Sumy's Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said. Three people were also killed in a rocket attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Moscow's army said it had captured the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region, located around five kilometres (three miles) from the Russian border. Zelensky said last week that Russia was massing some 50,000 soldiers for an offensive on the region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's SBU security service claimed it had hit a pillar of the Crimean bridge linking the annexed peninsula to Russia with an underwater explosive device. The extent of the damage was unclear following a temporary closure to the bridge after the attack. A delegation of top Ukrainian officials also landed in Washington for talks with US officials on defence and economic issues, including the possibility of new sanctions, Zelensky's office said. Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's top aide and a member of the delegation, met with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg. "I emphasized that Russia is stalling and manipulating the negotiation process in an attempt to avoid American sanctions, and has no genuine intention of ceasing hostilities," Yermak wrote on social media. "Only strong sanctions can compel Russia to engage in serious negotiations." Meanwhile, Russia's top security official Sergei Shoigu was in Pyongyang on Wednesday for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two countries have drawn closer in recent years, with North Korea sending troops and weapons to support Moscow's war effort. Russian news agencies reported Shoigu and Kim were expected to discuss issues including Ukraine. Trump, who said he could end the conflict swiftly when he returned to the White House in January, has repeatedly expressed anger at both Putin and Zelensky as the fighting drags through its fourth year with no end in sight. But he has held off from imposing new economic penalties on Moscow.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Inside the Ukrainian Drone Operation That Devastated Russia's Bomber Fleet
KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine's spectacular drone attack on Russia's strategic bomber fleet on Sunday began with a daunting request from Ukraine's president to his spy chief in late fall 2023. The Russian Air Force was pummeling Ukraine's power stations and cities with missiles, overwhelming meager air defenses, and Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to know: How can we fight back? Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, a 42-year-old career security officer with broad shoulders and a stern mien, has earned a reputation for innovative operations with explosive naval and aerial drones that forced Russia to withdraw much of its Black Sea Fleet from its base in occupied Crimea and damaged dozens of oil plants and military-production facilities deep inside Russia. But the task was formidable. The strategic bombers that launched many of Russia's most powerful missiles operate from beyond the range of Ukraine's air-defense systems, and were based at airfields across the country as much as 3,000 miles from Ukraine. Ukraine's SBU security service, which Maliuk heads, has deployed long-range aerial drones effectively, but they are vulnerable to Russian air defenses, including missile interceptors and jammers. What Maliuk and his team came up with shocked the world on Sunday with its audacity. The agency smuggled Ukrainian drone parts into Russia and assembled them at a secret location. SBU operatives inside Russia used unwitting truck drivers to deliver a modern version of the Trojan horse by concealing the drones in the roofs of wooden containers. On Sunday, the roofs, activated remotely, slid open on trucks close to Russian airbases, releasing dozens of drones and adding a dash of Transformers to old-school spycraft. More than 100 quadcopters, small drones with four rotors, emerged and zipped toward their targets, some descending through smoke billowing from already-damaged aircraft. A Wall Street Journal analysis of official Ukrainian statements along with satellite images, accounts by people familiar with the operation, and photographs and videos posted on social media shows how a meticulously planned operation that combined homegrown technology with the classic art of deception unfolded. Ukraine said that it damaged 41 warplanes valued at $7 billion at four bases using drones that cost about $2,000 each. Publicly available videos and satellite imagery reviewed by Journal showed 12 damaged planes across two airbases. 'The numbers the Ukrainians have been providing aren't backed up yet by hard evidence,' said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a Monterey, Calif.-based think tank that studies weapons of mass destruction. Lair identified the damaged planes through satellite imagery and social media. Still, he said, 'It's clear that this has dealt a very heavy blow to the Russian strategic bomber force, even if we aren't seeing the numbers that the Ukrainians have claimed.' Of the four airbases that the SBU said it targeted, satellite imagery indicates that three sustained damage, and only two show visible signs of damaged aircrafts—the Belaya and Olenya airbases. Satellite imagery from Monday shows that a third airbase, Dyagilevo, sustained only a patch of burned grass, according to Lair. Much of the damaged equipment is irreplaceable or hard to rebuild. A Ukrainian law-enforcement official said at least one of the targets damaged was a rare A-50 plane, which provides airborne early warning of potential threats and targets as well as command and control of the battlefield. Available satellite imagery doesn't show any damaged A-50s. Most of the planes hit were Tupolev Tu-95 bombers, a Soviet-era aircraft still crucial to Russia's long-range missile campaigns. While the extent of the damage to Tu-95s remains unclear, in light of the aircrafts' age and scarcity of parts, even relatively minor damage could derail Russia's air missions for months, Lair said. Maliuk and his agency have plenty of experience striking prime targets, from the use of a truck bomb to damage the Kerch Bridge between mainland Russia and occupied Crimea to assassinations on Russian territory, including the killing of a Russian general with an exploding scooter as well as a bomb hidden in a statuette to kill a prominent war blogger. Zelensky said that Ukrainian intelligence operatives in Russia had set up a base right under the noses of Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB. Russian law enforcement searched a concrete warehouse Sunday in Chelyabinsk, an industrial city in the Ural Mountains about 900 miles east of Moscow and a few miles from the local FSB headquarters, according to Russian media. Russian state media named a Ukrainian deejay who had been living in Russia and recently relocated to the city last year as one of the people responsible for logistics behind the drone attack, purchasing the trucks that would carry the drones and coordinating the drivers. He didn't respond to requests for comment. Some of the materials the SBU used in the operation had to be smuggled across tightly controlled borders, including the parts that would eventually be assembled into the attack drones. A Ukrainian law-enforcement official said the drones used were quadcopters called Osa, produced by the Ukrainian company First Contact. The craft, about the length of a man's arm, are made in Ukraine, can carry a payload just over 7 pounds and travel at a maximum speed of just over 90 miles per hour, according to the manufacturer's website. Valeriy Borovyk, the founder of First Contact, declined to comment on whether the drones were used in the operation, but said they are manufactured for complex special operations. Osa, Ukrainian for 'bee,' has several alternatives for how it can be controlled. One of them is the ability to connect to cellular networks, which Russia shuts down when it expects an incoming strike but remain operational when there is an element of surprise, as there was with Sunday's operation. Borovyk said it was the SBU's meticulous preparation ahead of the strike that would have allowed for drone operators to do their job effectively. He said the strike portion of the operation was the cherry on top. 'But this cake, they prepared it, cooked it, put it in a box, decorated it—to continue the metaphor—and all of this was done with great care and detail,' Borovyk said. The truck drivers said to Russian authorities that they weren't told about the contents of the containers and were instructed to stop at gas stations or roadside rest stops near the airports, according to Russian media. Once parked at their designated locations, the roofs of the containers housing the quadcopters were opened remotely, the SBU said, and the drones flew out with a high-pitched buzz. A photo shows Maliuk as he surveyed diagrams of planes where the most vulnerable spots are marked with red crosses. Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the crosses mark where internal fuel tanks are located on each type of plane, which would have caused a major fire when ignited by the small payload from the drones. Celebrating the attack, Zelensky lauded the SBU—and personally thanked Maliuk—for the operation, which he said showed Ukraine is still in the fight. 'Russia's whole narrative, which they spread everywhere, in Europe, in Britain, in America, that they're safe, they're winning the war—this narrative is not working,' Zelensky told reporters Monday. 'They're not safe.' Write to James Marson at and Brenna T. Smith at Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Expanding missile threats and airspace closures are straining airlines
Live Events WORST-CASE SCENARIO TOUGH CHOICES (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing burden on airline operations and profitability, executives say, as carriers grapple with missiles and drones, airspace closures, location spoofing and the shoot-down of another passenger are racking up costs and losing market share from cancelled flights and expensive re-routings, often at short notice. The aviation industry, which prides itself on its safety performance, is investing more in data and security planning."Flight planning in this kind of environment is extremely difficult ... The airline industry thrives on predictability, and the absence of this will always drive greater cost," said Guy Murray, who leads aviation security at European carrier TUI increasing airspace closures around Russia and Ukraine, throughout the Middle East, between India and Pakistan and in parts of Africa, airlines are left with fewer route options."Compared to five years ago, more than half of the countries being overflown on a typical Europe-Asia flight would now need to be carefully reviewed before each flight," said Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East since October 2023 led to commercial aviation sharing the skies with short-notice barrages of drones and missiles across major flight paths - some of which were reportedly close enough to be seen by pilots and airports, including in Moscow, are now regularly shut down for brief periods due to drone activity, while interference with navigation systems, known as GPS spoofing or jamming, is surging around political fault lines hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan last month, the neighbours blocked each other's aircraft from their respective airspace."Airspace should not be used as a retaliatory tool, but it is," Nick Careen, International Air Transport Association (IATA) senior vice president for operations, safety and security, told reporters at the airline body's annual meeting in New Delhi on Porqueras, chief operating officer at Indian carrier IndiGo, said the recent diversions were undoing efforts to reduce emissions and increase airline aside, civil aviation's worst-case scenario is a plane being hit, accidentally or intentionally, by December, an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people. The plane was accidentally shot down by Russian air defences, according to Azerbaijan's president and Reuters October, a cargo plane was shot down in Sudan, killing five commercial aircraft have been shot down, with three near-misses since 2001, according to aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight need to share information more effectively to keep civil aviation secure as conflict zones proliferate, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this statistics used by the commercial aviation industry show a steady decline in accidents over the past two decades, but these do not include security-related incidents such as being hit by said in February that accidents and incidents related to conflict zones were a top concern for aviation safety requiring urgent global airline decides where to travel based on a patchwork of government notices, security advisers, and information-sharing between carriers and states, leading to divergent closure of Russian airspace to most Western carriers since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022 put them at a cost disadvantage compared to airlines from places like China, India and the Middle East that continue to take shorter northern routes that need less fuel and fewer risk calculations mean Singapore Airlines' flight SQ326 from Singapore to Amsterdam has used three different routes into Europe in just over a year, Flightradar24 tracking data reciprocal missile and drone attacks broke out between Iran and Israel in April 2024, it started crossing previously avoided Afghanistan instead of month, its route shifted again to avoid Pakistan's airspace as conflict escalated between India and Pakistan. Flight SQ326 now reaches Europe via the Persian Gulf and Iraq. Singapore Airlines did not respond immediately to a request for and flight attendants are also worried about how the patchwork of shifting risk might impact their safety."IATA says airlines should decide if it's safe to fly over conflict zones, not regulators. But history shows commercial pressures can cloud those decisions," said Paul Reuter, vice president of the European Cockpit Association, which represents crew typically have the right to refuse a trip due to concerns about airspace, whether over weather or conflict zones, IATA security head Careen said."Most airlines, in fact, I would say the vast majority of them, do not want crew on an aircraft if they don't feel comfortable flying," he said.
