Russia, Ukraine head to Istanbul for fresh peace talks
Russian and Ukrainian officials will meet Monday in Istanbul to exchange their plans for how to end the three-year war, Europe's largest conflict since World War II, after Kyiv says it struck dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases deep in Russia.
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 significant progress towards an elusive agreement.
Monday's talks come a day after Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil -- hitting dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases thousands of kilometres behind the front line.
At the first round of talks in Istanbul last month, they agreed a large-scale prisoner exchange and to swap notes on what their vision of a peace deal might look like.
The second set of negotiations is scheduled to get underway at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul, an Ottoman imperial house on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury five-star hotel.
Russia says it will present a "memorandum" of its peace terms, having resisted pressure by Ukraine to send its demands in advance.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, the two sides remain far apart over a possible deal -- either for a truce or longer-term settlement.
Outlining Kyiv's position ahead of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refreshed his call for an immediate halt to the fighting.
"First –- a full and unconditional ceasefire. Second –- the release of prisoners. Third -– the return of abducted children," he said Sunday in a post on social media.
He also called for the sides to discuss a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The key issues can only be resolved by the leaders," Zelensky said.
The Kremlin has repeatedly pushed back on that prospect, saying a Putin-Zelensky meeting could only happen after the negotiating delegations reach wider "agreements".
Russia has questioned Zelensky's legitimacy throughout the war and repeatedly called for him to be toppled.
Moscow says it wants to address the "root causes" of the conflict -- language typically used to refer to a mix of sweeping demands including limiting Ukraine's military, banning the country from joining NATO and massive territorial concessions.
Kyiv and the West have rejected those calls and cast Russia's assault as nothing but an imperialist land grab.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded, with swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed and millions forced to flee their homes.
- War rages on -
Russia's top negotiator in Istanbul will be Vladimir Medinsky, an ideological Putin aide who led failed talks in 2022, has written school textbooks justifying the invasion and questioned Ukraine's right to exist.
Ukraine's team will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, seen as a skilled and pragmatic negotiator, but who has been mired in domestic scandal over alleged abuse of power and a lack of transparency.
"Diplomatic advisors" from Germany, France and Britain will be "on the ground... in close coordination with the Ukrainian negotiating team," a German government spokesperson said Sunday.
Ukraine on Sunday said it had damaged some 40 strategic Russian bombers, worth $7 billion, in a major special operation after months of setbacks for Kyiv's military.
Kyiv's security service said the plan, 18 months in the making, had involved smuggling drones into Russia which were then launched from near the airbases, thousands of kilometres away from the front lines.
Russian troops have meanwhile been advancing on the ground, particularly in the northeastern Sumy region, where Putin ordered his forces to establish a "buffer zone" along the border.
Ballistic strikes in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Monday injured at least six people, including a seven-year-old, and damaged a civilian business and a warehouse, Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said on Monday.
Ahead of the talks, Russian officials have called for Ukraine to be cut off from Western military support and cede territory still controlled by its army.
Ukraine has pushed Russia to agree a full, unconditional and immediate ceasefire -- saying a pause in the fighting is necessary to then discuss what a long-term settlement could look like.
Kyiv has refused to formally give up the one-fifth of its territory controlled by Russia, though it has accepted that it may only be able to get some land back through diplomacy, not fighting.
It also wants concrete Western-backed security guarantees -- like NATO protections or Western troops on the ground -- that have also been ruled out by Russia.
bur-jc/rlp/dhw
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
10 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump's early-term momentum has hit a wall. Here's why.
Trump's early-term momentum has hit a wall. Here's why. From Gaza to Ukraine and from federal judges to the Federal Reserve, President Donald Trump has seen his early White House successes take a back seat to emerging struggles. Show Caption Hide Caption Elon Musk slams Trump's big tax bill on X Days after leaving the White House, Elon Musk slammed President Trump's big tax bill on X. WASHINGTON − Governing? Harder than it looked. Just as Donald Trump is pushing to pass the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, former BFF Elon Musk is trashing his "big, beautiful bill" as "a disgusting abomination." The president's prediction that Vladimir Putin would heed his entreaties to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours is stretching into Month Five. Judges he appointed to the bench are daring to rule against him. From cutting federal spending to deporting illegal immigrants, from reaching a nuclear deal with Iran to negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza, Team Trump is running into roadblocks that are making it difficult to deliver on promises he confidently made before moving into the White House. More: Trump erupts when asked about 'TACO trade' ― a new nickname mocking his tariff approach There are some skid marks where the rubber has met the road. To be sure, some of Trump's problems come from a surplus of early successes and from the breadth of his ambitions. Through a flood of executive orders and actions, he has launched a transformation of the USA's approach to the world and the federal government's role in Americans' lives. Congressional Democrats are still struggling to craft a consistent and coherent strategy against him. But the pushback from other forces has become increasingly problematic for the White House − pushback from skeptical judges, foreign leaders with their own priorities, a steady-as-she-goes Federal Reserve and the reality of budget arithmetic. If Trump's first 100 days were a rollercoaster, the second 100 days, a span that ends on Aug. 8, are proving to be a bit of a slog. Ukraine: 'It'll be done within 24 hours' The question for Trump − as it was for many of his predecessors in the White House − is how he chooses to respond, whether he doubles down or adjusts his goals and tactics when obstacles loom. Consider Ukraine. In dozens of campaign speeches, candidate Trump said he would settle the war in Ukraine within a day of taking office, and perhaps even before he moved in. More: Russia's 'Pearl Harbor': What to know about Ukraine's audacious drone strike "I know Zelenskyy, I know Putin," he said at one Pennsylvania rally, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Russian counterpart "It'll be done within 24 hours, you watch. They all say, 'That's such a boast.' It will be done very quickly.'" But Putin has swatted away Trump's demands for a quick ceasefire, and Ukrainian forces have engineered a stunning drone assault on Russian military forces. An end to the war seems nowhere in sight. "I'm very disappointed," Trump said on May 28. What does he do next? More: Russia demands harsh terms at Ukraine peace talks Trump has threatened sanctions on Russia but is clearly loath to impose them. He has also suggested the United States may just walk away, leaving the conflict to the two warring parties and the Europeans to figure out. He faces similar calculations on tariffs, where he has delayed or reduced his most far-reaching threats to China and elsewhere when they seemed to rattle the stock markets. Does he follow through on his July 8 deadline for trading partners to make deals or be hit with the most stringent tariffs in close to a century? And on Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime ally, has resisted the administration's efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. "Get it over with and let's get back to peace and stop killing people," Trump had vowed during the 2024 campaign. But the region is still wracked by chaos and violence, in recent days over the distribution of food aid. For presidents, a familiar problem Trump is hardly the first president to find himself stymied by the realities of governing and the frustrations of the balance of power. Franklin D. Roosevelt was so enraged by Supreme Court decisions undercutting his New Deal that in 1937 he proposed packing the court with additional, and presumably friendlier, justices. That idea went nowhere, though the high court started to be more welcoming to his initiatives. More than a half-century later, Bill Clinton adopted a strategy of cooperation with the new Republican House speaker, Newt Gingrich, when Democrats lost control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections. The policy, dubbed "triangulation," dismayed liberal Democrats but led to welfare reform and a balanced budget. More: Elon Musk slams President Trump's big tax and policy bill as a 'disgusting abomination' After Democratic setbacks in the 2014 midterms, Barack Obama said he still had the ability to deploy "the pen and the phone" − that is, to sign executive actions and to activate outside allies. Trump enjoys considerable political assets, including the discombobulation of Democratic leaders and the loyalty of congressional Republicans. More: Trump lashes out at Sen. Rand Paul over opposition to big tax bill That is being tested by the battle over the bill known as reconciliation. The sprawling measure would extend and expand tax cuts from Trump's first term, add billions of dollars for border security, and trim billions from Medicaid and clean-energy tax credits. It would also increase the national debt by a budget-busting $2.4 trillion over 10 years, according to the updated estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In previous showdowns, Trump has prevailed in Congress, in part because GOP members see their reelections at risk if an unhappy president backs primary challengers against them. He is lobbying for the bill as "arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country." But Musk, who until May 27 led Trump's DOGE budget-cutting initiative, has weighed in on the other side, warning the legislation would create a "crushingly unsustainable debt." His warnings are being cited by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and a handful of other GOP senators alarmed by the bill's impact on the federal budget deficit. The tech billionaire posted an electoral threat of his own on X. The social-media platform is a political asset, too, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars that the world's richest man has been willing to spend in the past on political campaigns. "In November next year," he proposed, "we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."
Fox News
10 minutes ago
- Fox News
Durbin obstruction threat chills Senate as Trump nominees hang in balance
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used his opening remarks during the Senate's first judicial nominee hearing of the year on Wednesday to remind his colleagues that he was holding up at least one of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice nominees. "I've got a hold on one nominee from Florida," Durbin said. "I've spoken to both Florida senators about it. It isn't personal. We've got to find a way out of this that is fair and bipartisan that we're going to stick with for both political parties." Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is blocking the nomination of Jason Reding Quinones, Trump's choice to lead the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Florida. Durbin also recently threatened to obstruct more of Trump's picks to lead the DOJ's 93 U.S. attorney's offices. Durbin's threat loomed over the committee hearing, which featured five of Trump's nominees to fill federal judge positions. The Illinois Democrat attributed his blockade to Vice President JD Vance announcing a hold on DOJ nominees in 2023. Vance, then a senator, said he would not lift his hold on nominees until then-Attorney General Merrick Garland stopped "going after his political opponents," a reference to the two federal prosecutions of Trump. Any senator has the power to use holds to object to nominations. The practice significantly slows down the confirmation process because it prevents senators from voting for nominees through the typical, expedited unanimous consent process. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, argued Wednesday that, like Durbin, he too disagreed with Vance's decision, but Grassley said it was notably different than Durbin's. "This isn't what you can legitimately call a precedent for blanket obstruction at the beginning of an administration before even a single one of these 93 U.S. attorneys have been filled," Grassley said. Grassley, who himself has hindered nominees in past administrations, said holds should be used "selectively" and quoted Durbin saying last Congress that "public safety will suffer across the United States" if the obstruction of U.S. attorneys is carried out. Durbin said Vance changed the rules "overnight." "And guess what? The tables turn," Durbin said. "There comes a time when you want to move these by voice vote, and we're going to have to say, as Democrats, we're going to follow the Vance precedent." Durbin, who has an amicable relationship with Grassley, signaled he was willing to come to negotiate with Republicans over the Florida nominee, who has already been favorably reported out of the committee along party lines. Asked by Fox News Digital what a resolution would look like, a Durbin spokeswoman pointed to the senator's remarks during the hearing and declined to comment further. Durbin's hold is not the only roadblock for Trump's nominees. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday from the Senate floor that Republicans wanted to "quietly rubber-stamp" Patrick Davis' nomination and that he would not allow it. Trump nominated Davis, a former Grassley aide, to serve as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legislative Affairs, who is responsible for handling DOJ's correspondence with Congress. Schumer said he opposed Davis' nomination in part because the DOJ has been unresponsive to his inquiries about the controversial luxury plane that Qatar gifted to the Trump administration. "They won't even answer serious questions about this. This plane should be withdrawn," Schumer said. He added that when "this Justice Department is as horrible as it is, as political as it is, as destructive of American values as it has been, no way." Grassley responded to Schumer on X: "Why would Democrats expect responsiveness to Congress from DOJ when they obstruct Pres Trump's nominees who r responsible to ANSWER THEIR LTTRS????" The last two Senate-confirmed heads of the Office of Legislative Affairs, during the Biden administration and first Trump administration, were confirmed through the speedy voice vote process.
11 minutes ago
Inflation data threatened by government hiring freeze as tariffs loom
WASHINGTON -- The Labor Department has cut back on the inflation data it collects because of the Trump administration's government hiring freeze, raising concerns among economists about the quality of the inflation figures just as they are being closely watched for the impact of tariffs. The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the monthly consumer price index, the most closely watched inflation measure, said Wednesday that it is 'reducing sample in areas across the country' and stopped collecting price data entirely in April in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah. It also said it has stopped collecting data this month in Buffalo, New York. In an email that the BLS sent to economists, viewed by The Associated Press, the agency said that it 'temporarily reduced the number of outlets and quotes it attempted to collect due to a staffing shortage' in April. The reduced data collection 'will be kept in place until the hiring freeze is lifted.' President Donald Trump froze federal hiring on his first day in office and extended the freeze in April until late July, suggesting future inflation reports will also involve less data collection. The cutbacks have intensified worries among economists that government spending cuts could degrade the federal government's ability to compile key economic data on employment, prices, and the broader economy. The BLS also said last month that it will no longer collect wholesale prices in about 350 categories for its Producer Price Index, a measure of price changes before they reach the consumer. The cutbacks are also occurring at a time of heightened uncertainty about the economy and the impact of Trump's sweeping tariffs on hiring, growth and inflation. 'The PPI is cutting hundreds of indexes from production, and the CPI is now being constructed with less data,' Omair Sharif, chief economist at the consulting firm Inflation Insights, said in an email. 'That alone is worrying given that we're heading into the teeth of the tariff impact on prices.' Earlier this year, the Trump administration disbanded several advisory committees that worked with BLS and other statistical agencies on fine-tuning its data-gathering. The BLS said that the cutbacks 'have minimal impact' on the overall inflation data, but 'they may increase the volatility' of the reported prices of specific items. Alan Detmeister, an economist at UBS, an investment bank, said the cutbacks likely had little impact on April's inflation figures. But "if these types of cuts continue, they will degrade the reliability and efficacy of these statistical agencies,' he said.
