Russia-Ukraine fighting steps up ahead of talks in Turkey
Russian
and Ukrainian officials are due to sit down on Monday in the Turkish city of Istanbul for their second round of
direct peace talks
since 2022.
The two sides are still far apart on how to end the war, however, and the fighting is stepping up.
Russia launched deadly attacks across Ukraine before the Istanbul talks.
Russian shelling and air attacks killed five people outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, while a drone attack on the northeast region of Sumy injured at least six people early on Monday, including two children, officials said.
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The Kremlin launched 472 drones at Ukraine, Ukraine's air force said, the highest nightly total of the war.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and other military bases.
A Ukrainian intelligence official said 40 Russian warplanes were struck in a 'large-scale' drone attack.
Their first round of talks on May 16th yielded the biggest prisoner swap of the war but no sign of peace – or even a ceasefire as both sides merely set out their own opening negotiating positions.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said defence minister Rustem Umerov would meet Russian officials in Istanbul for the second round of talks.
The Russian delegation is headed by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who after the first round invoked French general and statesman Napoleon Bonaparte to assert that war and negotiations should always be conducted at the same time.
US president
Donald Trump
has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace, but so far they have not done so, and the White House has repeatedly warned the United States will 'walk away' from the war if the two sides fail to reach a peace deal.
The idea of direct talks was first proposed by president Vladimir Putin after Ukraine and European powers demanded that he agree to a ceasefire which the Kremlin dismissed.
Mr Putin said Russia would draft a memorandum setting out the broad contours of a possible peace accord and only then discuss a ceasefire.
Kyiv said over the weekend it was still waiting for draft memorandum from the Russian side.
Mr Medinsky, the lead Kremlin negotiator, said on Sunday that Moscow had received a Ukraine's draft memorandum and told Russia's RIA news agency the Kremlin would react to it on Monday.
According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, the two sides will in Turkey present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, though it is clear that after three years of war Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart.
Mr Kellogg has indicated that the US will be involved in the talks and that even representatives from Britain, France and Germany will be too, though it was not clear at what level the United States would be represented.
In June last year, Mr Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul will present to the Russian side a proposed roadmap for reaching a lasting peace settlement, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.
According to the document, there will be no restrictions on Ukraine's military strength after a peace deal is struck, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow's forces, and reparations for Ukraine.
The document also stated that the current location of the front line will be the starting point for negotiations about territory.
Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100sq/km, about the same size as the US state of Ohio.
Mr Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
The United States says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.
Mr Trump has called the Russian leader 'crazy' and berated Mr Zelenskiy in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said that he thinks peace is achievable and that if Mr Putin delays then he could impose tough sanctions on Russia. – Reuters
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