Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv and Moscow working on new prisoner exchange after talks last less than an hour
The second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended barely an hour after they began in Istanbul.
The talks - the second such direct contacts between the sides since 2022 - had already begun nearly two hours later than scheduled with no explanation of the delay.
The mood in Russia was angry as the talks kicked off, with influential war bloggers calling on Moscow to deliver a fearsome retaliatory blow against Kyiv after Ukraine launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and elsewhere.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Lithuania, later said the two sides were preparing a new exchange of prisoners of war.
His chief of staff also said the Ukrainian delegation had handed over a list of deported children to Russia during Monday's talks that Ukraine wants returned home.
The first round of talks on 16 May yielded the biggest prisoner swap of the war but no sign of peace – or even a ceasefire as both sides merely set out their opening negotiating positions.
Sanctions on Russia needed as Putin doesn't want ceasefire, says Zelensky's aide
Russia does not want a ceasefire and new sanctions are needed now to force it to pursue peace, the chief of staff to the Ukrainian president said yesterday.
"The Russians are doing everything to not cease firing and continue the war. New sanctions now are very important," said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office.
Mr Yermak posted his remarks on Telegram, hours after the conclusion of peace talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
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BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Satellite images show Russian bombers destroyed in Ukraine attack
New satellite images and drone footage show serious damage inflicted on aircraft at several Russian airbases during Ukraine's surprise drone strike on images of two Russian airbases in north-western and central Russia, taken on Wednesday morning, show 12 aircraft damaged or drone footage, released by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Wednesday, showed attacks on these two bases as well as two more targeted claims that it targeted 41 strategic bombers in the operation, adding that "at least" 13 were destroyed. Security officials say the shock incursion took 18 months to plan and saw many drones smuggled into Russia. Drone attacks recorded The SBU video is almost five minutes long and consists of edited footage taken by drones in the process of conducting attacks on Olenya, Ivanovo, Dyagilevo and Belaya each shot the feed cuts out before any explosion, but in some instances we see other planes on fire in the background. At no point do we see any indication of defensive measures from Russian forces, even after the attack was clearly well of the aircraft are covered in tyres - a Russian tactic said to be aimed at mitigating against drone of the aircraft are seen apparently loaded with cruise missiles and well fuelled - judging by the extent and spread of fires. This suggests they were prepared to conduct strikes. The clearest satellite imagery covers Olenya and Belaya and shows five damaged or destroyed planes at the former and seven at the latter. Olenya Olenya is a major Russian airbase in the north-west of the SBU footage shows smoke pouring from three aircraft, identified as Tu-95 strategic bombers and an approach to a fourth. Video footage also shows a drone approaching a Tu-22M strategic bomber sitting on the runway in this very same imagery from Maxar clearly shows a destroyed aircraft sitting beside a row of Tu-22M type aircraft. Manufacturing of both the Tu-95 and Tu-22 ended at the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, which will make repair difficult and replacement near in the SBU video, an AN-12 Transporter can be seen being approached. The Maxar satellite image does not show the aftermath of this, but other imagery reviewed by BBC Verify from AviVector - a satellite image analyst on X - suggests that it too was destroyed. Belaya Imagery provided by Planet Labs from this morning shows the entirety of Belaya airbase in Irkutsk Oblast, nearly 3,000km from the Ukrainian border. It shows three damaged Tu-95s and four Tu-22s and in various parts of the base. The SBU footage shows many of the same aircraft being two instances we see the drone carefully position itself on the wing of a Tu-95 - next to one of its fuel final shot of the footage shows smoke rising from numerous sites across the base. Ivanovo At Ivanovo airbase two A50-AWACS planes are seen being targeted. The aircraft serves as an early warning and control asset - or spy plane - and is identifiable by the sizeable radar system on its previously shot down two of these aircraft in January and February yet we have not seen any imagery or footage that captures any damage to these aircraft at satellite imagery from the site does show wreckage, BBC Verify has confirmed that the damage was present at the site before Sunday's attack and is likely from another incident. Dyagilevo The SBU footage from Dyagilevo in Ryazan region shows three Tu-22s being approached, but there is no clear indication of damage sustained in either the footage or available satellite reporting by Shayan Sardarizadeh What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Putin tells Trump Russia ‘will have to respond' to Ukraine drone attack
Donald Trump has spoken for more than an hour with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, but he conceded the talks would not lead 'to immediate peace' in Ukraine, and warned that Russia would respond to Ukraine's successful attacks this week on its airfields. The US president, who repeatedly claimed he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours during his election campaign, did not attempt to discourage the Russian leader from retaliation, according to his description of the discussion on his Truth Social platform. He noted instead that Putin had offered to participate in US talks with Iran about its nuclear programme, which the Trump claimed Tehran had been 'slowwalking'. In separate remarks on Wednesday, Putin once again ruled out a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine, claiming that it would just give Kyiv time to regroup and rearm, while Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Moscow's peace proposals presented earlier this week as nothing more than an 'ultimatum'. The comments from both leaders confirmed that negotiations in Istanbul on Monday had made no headway towards a truce, but the two sides signalled progress on other issues, including the transfer of captives and bodies. Russia said it was 'working' on the return of more than 300 Ukrainian children who the Kyiv government and the international criminal court (ICC) say were abducted by invading forces. It also confirmed there would be a prisoner exchange in the coming days, and that were ongoing discussions on plans to repatriate thousands of bodies of fallen soldiers from both sides. Zelenskyy said he expected 500 PoWs to be swapped this weekend, but he said that the broader peace proposal put forward by Russia in Istanbul amounted to 'an ultimatum from the Russian side to us'. Immediately after Monday's meeting, Ukrainian officials said they needed more time to study the document handed over by the Russians, but press reports at the time said that it simply restated Russia's maximalist demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from four regions under partial Russian occupation. Putin stated his position on Wednesday in the form of a televised virtual meeting with his aides. After being informed that Ukraine had proposed an unconditional ceasefire of 30 to 60 days, Putin asked: 'Why reward them by giving them a break from the combat, which will be used to pump the regime with western arms, to continue their forced mobilisation and to prepare different terrorist acts?' He pointed to recent Ukrainian attacks on bridges inside Russia, one of which helped cause a train crash that killed seven people. On Sunday, Ukraine also carried out a remote-controlled mass drone attack on four Russian airfields, which Kyiv claims knocked out more than a third of Moscow's heavy bombers capable of firing cruise missiles. Ukrainian officials said 41 Russian warplanes, including strategic bombers and other types of combat aircraft, were destroyed or damaged in Sunday's operation, which they claimed had taken 18 months to plan. On Wednesday, they released additional drone footage of the attack, codenamed Operation Spiderweb. Satellite photos analysed and published by the Associated Press showed aircraft wreckage and scorched areas at Belaya base, one of the four airfields targeted. It said the images showed at least three Tu-95 and four Tu-22M bombers – both capable of firing cruise missiles – had been destroyed on the runway. Other aircraft at the base appeared unscathed. In his Truth Social post, Trump said the drone attacks on Russian airfields had come up in his hour-and-15-minute conversation with Putin on Wednesday. 'We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,' Trump said. 'It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.' Trump told Putin that Ukraine did not inform him before the drone attacks, a Kremlin spokesperson said. Before the Istanbul talks, Russia stepped up its aerial attacks on cities, and pushed further into Ukraine's northern region of Sumy, seizing more than 150 sq km (58 sq miles) of the area in less than two weeks, according to Russian claims and Ukrainian open-source mapping. During his election campaign, Trump claimed more than 50 times he could end the Ukraine conflict within a day, but his comments on Wednesday did not involve any calls for restraint. Instead, he noted that Putin had offered his help in direct talks the US has been holding with Iran over its nuclear programme, which has expanded considerably since 2018, when Trump walked out of a multilateral agreement to constrain it in exchange for sanctions relief. While Putin has ruled out a comprehensive ceasefire, Russia has suggested two- to three-day local truces on different parts of the frontline, to allow the opposing armies to collect their dead, a proposal Moscow says Kyiv has rejected. However, both sides showed on Wednesday they were ready to continue with the exchange of PoWs, the bodies of dead soldiers, and to offer some cooperation on Kyiv's priority, the return of Ukrainian children. In the televised government meeting on Wednesday, the chief Russian negotiator in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, said Russia was 'working' on the return of Ukrainian children, noting that Kyiv had presented a list of 339 of them. Russia has claimed Ukrainian children were taken to Russia for their safety, while Kyiv insisted they had been abducted. The Ukrainian view was underpinned by the ICC, which issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Putin and his 'commissioner for children's rights', Maria Lvova-Belova, for their role in the 'unlawful deportation' of the Ukrainian children. After the Istanbul meeting, Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation had handed the Russians a list of nearly 400 names of abducted Ukrainian children, but claimed that Russia had only offered to resolve the cases of 10 of them. After Monday's talks, Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that he wanted to host a Putin-Zelenskyy summit also involving Trump. Zelenskyy has been challenging his Russian counterpart to meet him face to face for some months. 'We are ready for such a meeting any day,' the Ukrainian leader said on Wednesday, adding that it was 'pointless' to hold further talks with the midlevel Russian delegates Putin has sent to the talks – who Zelenskyy has previously dismissed as 'empty heads' – since they were not empowered to agree a ceasefire. Putin maintained his opposition to a personal meeting with Zelenskyy however, on the grounds of the recent attacks on railways in the Kursk and Bryansk border regions, which he described as 'terrorist acts'. 'How can any such [summit] meetings be conducted in such circumstances? What shall we talk about?' Putin asked in his video call with his officials. Since Trump's return to the White House in January, European capitals have sought to take more of a leading role in bolstering Ukraine's defence, and on Wednesday, a series of military industrial support measures were announced at a meeting of the 52-country strong Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Nato headquarters in Brussels, chaired jointly by the UK and Germany.
Rhyl Journal
an hour ago
- Rhyl Journal
Zelensky calls Russia peace proposal an ‘ultimatum' and demands talks with Putin
Both sides exchanged memorandums setting out their conditions for a ceasefire for discussion at Monday's direct peace talks between delegations in Istanbul, their second meeting in just over two weeks. Both sides have established red lines that make any quick deal unlikely. Mr Zelensky said that the second round of talks in Istanbul were no different from the first meeting on May 16. He described the latest negotiations in Istanbul as 'a political performance' and 'artificial diplomacy' designed to stall for time, delay sanctions and convince the United States that Russia is engaged in dialogue. 'The same ultimatums they voiced back then – now they just put them on paper … Honestly, this document looks like spam. It's spam meant to flood us and create the impression that they're doing something,' Mr Zelensky said in his first reaction to the Russian document. He added that the 2025 talks in Istanbul carry 'the same content and spirit' as the fruitless negotiations held in the Turkish city in the early days of the war. The Ukrainian leader said that he sees little value in continuing talks at the current level of delegations. Defence minister Rustem Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, while Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Mr Putin, headed the Russian team. Mr Zelensky said he wants a ceasefire with Russia before a possible summit meeting with Mr Putin, possibly also including US President Donald Trump, in an effort to remove obstacles to a peace settlement. The US has led a recent diplomatic push to stop the full-scale invasion, which began on February 24 2022. 'We are proposing … a ceasefire before a leaders' summit,' with the US acting as a mediator, Mr Zelensky told a media briefing in Kyiv. 'Why a ceasefire before the leaders' meeting? Because if we meet and there is no mutual understanding, no willingness or vision on how to end this, then the ceasefire would end that same day. But if we see readiness to continue the dialogue and take real steps toward de-escalation, then the ceasefire would be extended with US mediation guarantees,' he said. Ukraine is ready to meet at any time from next Monday at a venue such as Istanbul, the Vatican or Switzerland, Mr Zelensky said. A second round of peace talks on Monday between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul lasted just over an hour and made no progress on ending the war. They agreed only to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops. Also, a new prisoner exchange with Russia could take place over the weekend, Mr Zelensky said. Also on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky also urged Western backers to speed up deliveries of air defence systems to counter Russian missile strikes and to help boost weapons production. The emphasis should be on US-made Patriot systems, he told a Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels. 'These are the most effective way to force Russia to stop its missile strikes and terror,' he said via video link, urging representatives of around 50 countries to make good on past pledges. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth did not attend, the first time a Pentagon chief has been absent since the forum for organising Ukraine's military aid was set up three years ago. Mr Hegseth's predecessor, Lloyd Austin, created the group after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine. His absence is the latest step that the Trump administration has taken to distance itself from Ukraine's efforts to repel Russia. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to UN estimates, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. Mr Zelensky also appealed to the participants to buy weapons direct from Ukraine. 'Ukrainian industry still has significant untapped capacity, it just needs financing,' he said, underlining that a funding gap for weapons procurement amounts to about 18 billion dollars (£13 billion). The UK, which chaired the meeting along with Germany, said it plans a tenfold increase in drone production to help Ukraine. Drones have become a decisive factor in the war, now in its fourth year. Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said that 'you recognise true friends not during a party, but when you do have difficult times. So therefore, our continuation of support for Ukraine and increasing it is of utmost importance'. Since the contact group was formed, Ukraine's backers have collectively provided around 126 billion dollars (£93 billion) in weapons and military assistance, including more than 66.5 billion dollars (£49 billion) from the US. The US has not chaired a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group since the Trump administration took office in January. European Nato allies are concerned that the US might withdraw troops from Europe to focus on the Indo-Pacific. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that abandoning Ukraine would erode US credibility in deterring any conflict with China over Taiwan.
