Ukraine, Russia meet for peace talks in Istanbul after explosive weekend
Russian and Ukrainian delegations have begun talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday, less than 24 hours after a massive Ukrainian drone attack struck Russian airfields.
The two delegations entered Ciragan Palace in Istanbul alongside a group of senior Turkish officials. It is the second round of peace talks to take place in the three years since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Images from the event show many of the Ukrainian delegation wearing military uniforms, while the Russian group exclusively wore suits.
Details of the meeting are not expected to be made public until after its conclusion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be meeting face-to-face, however.
Ukrainian forces destroyed 40 aircraft in the drone attack this weekend, which an official says took more than a year to orchestrate. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Sunday, saying it struck five airfields.
The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said.
Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defenses and guided missiles.
A series of explosions also struck bridges in Russia near Ukraine's border on Saturday, though Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the attacks.
A highway bridge over a railway in the Bryansk region was blown up at 10:50 p.m. on Saturday night just as a passenger train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath, Russian investigators said.
Just four hours later, a railway bridge over a highway was blown up in the neighboring Kursk region, showering the road with parts of a freight train, the investigators said.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Didier Deschamps on the brilliance of Doue and Yamal – and why he can't ‘copy and paste' PSG's success
Didier Deschamps had a hard enough job as it was fitting all the extravagantly gifted attacking players at his disposal into France's starting XI. Then Desire Doue came along. During the most recent international break, in March, Deschamps found himself grappling with the three-sided conundrum of how to grant his captain, Kylian Mbappe, the attacking freedom he desires, how to somehow harness Ousmane Dembele's remarkable form as a false nine with Paris Saint-Germain, and how to devise a system that would enable Michael Olise to fully express himself in a France shirt for the first time. Advertisement The two legs of France's Nations League quarter-final win over Croatia yielded only partial success on those fronts. The deployment of Dembele in a free central role in the first leg, a 2-0 defeat in Split, proved underwhelming, while Mbappe extended his run of international appearances without scoring to seven over the two matches. But Olise shone at No 10 in the return leg, opening his France account with a sumptuous free kick at the Stade de France that paved the way for a jubilantly celebrated penalty-shootout success. Doue successfully netted his spot kick after coming on as a 66th-minute substitute, but that was all before his man-of-the-match display in PSG's historic 5-0 demolition of Inter in the Champions League final. Having torn the Inter defence to shreds in Munich, becoming the first player to have produced three goal contributions in a final in the Champions League era, when he reported for France duty at Clairefontaine on Monday evening, it was with a status that had been spectacularly enhanced. There will be clamour now for Deschamps to find a way to include Mbappe and Dembele and Olise and Doue in his starting XI. But for the time being, he is simply pleased to be able to call upon a dazzlingly talented young player who showed at the Allianz Arena that he is already in the thrilling first flush of full sporting maturity. 'I wasn't surprised,' Deschamps tells The Athletic. 'He went from Rennes, where he was doing good things, to PSG, where there were various steps to take and he took them all. 'I brought him into the France squad. I knew he had the potential and I've obviously picked up information on his personality and things like that. Being capable of doing that at his age in a Champions League final… Bravo. And it means he'll turn up with a big smile on his face!' Advertisement Invited to pinpoint Doue's most impressive qualities, Deschamps makes a point of mentioning the dedication and level-headedness that have impressed the winger's coaches right from the earliest days of his career in the academy at Rennes. 'He has the ability to beat people,' the France coach says. 'He has the ability to cover a lot of ground, which isn't always the case (for players with his profile). That's why he's able to play in attack and in midfield. 'And he's young. He turns 20 on Tuesday (June 3). Things haven't happened by accident for him. Everything has been planned and mapped out. And you need that. You can't do without it at a big club. 'He does everything he needs to, but he doesn't rest on his laurels. He's made a very good start. Now it's up to him to sustain it over time.' Doue's emergence also means there are now two DDs in the France setup. 'That's why I picked him!' jokes the other one. Deschamps is sitting in a light and airy meeting room on the first floor of Clairefontaine's training and conference centre, a modern four-storey building of stone, steel and glass that looks down a grassy slope towards the Terrain Michel Platini training pitch. Somewhat incongruously, a gigantic inflatable green obstacle course is being erected on the lawn outside in preparation for a visit from the children of French Football Federation employees. It is the day after PSG's thrilling dismantling of Inter, but in the tranquil wooded surroundings of France's national football centre, which lies near the town of Rambouillet, 30 miles southwest of central Paris, the riotous celebrations that overtook the French capital the night before could not feel further away. As coach of the French national team, Deschamps was pleased to see a French club prevail in Europe's biggest club competition for only the second time after his own Marseille side's conquest of the continent in 1993. 'Whether you're a PSG supporter or not, they're a Ligue 1 club,' he says. 'And you can't say that Ligue 1 receives much consideration around the world today.' Advertisement But he is sceptical when it comes to any potential positive consequences for Les Bleus. For all the acclaim that Luis Enrique's side have received for their tactical synchronicity or the aggressiveness of their pressing, Deschamps believes it would be too difficult to replicate elements of the Spaniard's approach with France — not least because, as he points out, the only front line PSG players at his disposal are all forwards. 'I'm not complaining about the players I have, but (Achraf) Hakimi is not French, Marquinhos is not French, (Willian) Pacho is not French, Vitinha is not French, none of the (first-choice) midfielders are French. (Khvicha) Kvaratskhelia is Georgian,' he says. 'You can't copy and paste things, even though what they've done is very good. It works very well and it proves Luis Enrique right. Is it possible (to replicate)? Yes. Is there as much time? No. There's much less time. 'If you have seven or eight players, or an entire midfield, who all play for the same club, so much the better. I'd prefer to have 10 players from two clubs than 10 players from eight clubs. They have an automatic understanding and what they do with their clubs serves the national team, but it's not always the case. 'And even with the players I can pick — if we take the example of Desire Doue and (Bradley) Barcola — they're in competition! Sometimes they play together, but sometimes one starts and the other one comes on. It's difficult to transpose things. 'In a club, you have the whole week and you're playing matches together one after the other. So it's not the same.' Doue may be the name on everyone's lips this week and Dembele may be the leading French contender for the Ballon d'Or, but Deschamps takes care to make sure his skipper is not overlooked. 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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Bruno Fernandes rejecting Saudi Arabia is good news – and not just for Manchester United
It's easy to get annoyed at Bruno Fernandes. As an on-pitch presence, he's not especially likeable. His face seems permanently set to 'complaint' mode. He nags at referees. There was that undignified episode when Manchester United lost 7-0 to Liverpool a couple of years ago and he essentially threw a tantrum on the pitch. Advertisement But, as much as anything, that just illustrates something we all know: that on-pitch manners do not necessarily maketh the man. You hear plenty of stories about Bruno being a good guy, which at the very least balances the apparent petulance, most notably his attempt to pay for United staff to attend the FA Cup final after their free travel and accommodation were nixed as part of Big Jim Ratcliffe's cost-cutting drive. He also tends to be the one who 'fronts up' to the media after United defeats, when most of the time he's the least of their problems. That might feel minor, but doing it means one of his younger, more junior, probably struggling team-mates doesn't have to. Fernandes currently plays for a particularly bleak type of football institution: one that's rich and high profile, and thus commands a lot of attention, but one that can't win games, and is run by people who seem intent on flushing any goodwill they might have down the toilet through redundancies, price rises, cutting charitable grants and whatever else they have planned in the name of austerity. This is a club that has been carried on the pitch by their best player and captain for longer than he probably cares to remember, and one that you have little confidence is going to turn things around any time soon. In short, you wouldn't blame Fernandes for desperately grabbing at any plausible life raft that happens to float past. Which brings us to his decision to turn down Al Hilal this week. 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But the rest of us in Britain, Europe, the non-Saudi world, should be pleased, too. It is, on the most basic level, refreshing to see someone have the conviction to turn down that amount of money. I can't confidently say that I would. If you can, then fair play to you. Fernandes' representatives met with Al Hilal, so we can assume that he didn't turn the offer down on moral grounds, otherwise he might not have even entertained it. It's also true that it's easier to reject that kind of approach when you already earn £250,000-a-week at one of the world's biggest clubs. Fernandes is not exactly hard up. But it's still pleasing that a player has not signed up to the Saudi project; someone of standing has rejected being a representative of the ultimate purpose of their move into sport, whether you call it sportswashing, soft power or something less charitable. The players that have agreed to move to the Saudi Pro League so far have generally fallen into three categories: ageing legends in decline, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Sadio Mane; excellent-but-not-quite-elite types in roughly their peak years, like Ruben Neves, Ivan Toney or Aleksandar Mitrovic; and relative journeymen, such as your Daniel Podences or Georges-Kevin N'Koudous. Advertisement What they haven't really yet managed to snag is a genuinely elite player at the peak of his powers from one of the elite clubs; a player who could probably slot happily into most top European teams and who represents a legitimate loss to one of the 'legacy' leagues. You could argue Karim Benzema (who was the reigning Ballon d'Or holder when he joined Al Ittihad) or Riyad Mahrez (fresh from Manchester City's treble-winning season) fit into this category, but they were 35 and 32 respectively when they made their moves. Fernandes is 30, but still performing as if in his prime, so would probably have been the SPL's biggest coup from a purely football perspective, if not a PR one. As it is, one of the Premier League's best players is staying in the Premier League, and will continue playing at a level of competition that befits his ability. Whether it's for that reason, or a sign that not everybody can be bought, or that not everyone can be persuaded to represent state project — take your pick — this should be celebrated. This is all said with the caveat that Fernandes is staying… for now. We have been in this position before, where someone turns down a move to Saudi Arabia initially, only to reconsider. Steven Gerrard, who rejected an offer to become Al Ettifaq manager in June 2023 then joined them the following month, springs to mind. This article might look pretty silly if Fernandes flip-flops. He also isn't necessarily staying at United: should a competent European team make him and United an attractive offer, he may still leave. We also shouldn't pretend he's a saint who is sticking around purely for altruistic reasons, for the history of a proud football club that he simply can't abandon. He has made this decision for essentially the same reason that all of those players who have moved to Saudi: because it is in the best interests of him and his family. If a better alternative presents itself, he will probably take it, and rightly so. But for now, Bruno Fernandes is not moving to Saudi Arabia, and we should welcome that fact.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Expanding missile threats and airspace closures are straining airlines
By Lisa Barrington, Shivansh Tiwary and Joanna Plucinska NEW DELHI (Reuters) - 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 flight. Airlines 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 Airline. With 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 information. The 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 passengers. Russian 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 worldwide. When 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 Tuesday. Isidre Porqueras, chief operating officer at Indian carrier IndiGo, said the recent diversions were undoing efforts to reduce emissions and increase airline efficiencies. WORST-CASE SCENARIO Finances aside, civil aviation's worst-case scenario is a plane being hit, accidentally or intentionally, by weaponry. In 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 sources. In October, a cargo plane was shot down in Sudan, killing five people. Six commercial aircraft have been shot down, with three near-misses since 2001, according to aviation risk consultancy Osprey Flight Solutions. Governments need to share information more effectively to keep civil aviation secure as conflict zones proliferate, IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this week. Safety 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 weaponry. IATA said in February that accidents and incidents related to conflict zones were a top concern for aviation safety requiring urgent global coordination. TOUGH CHOICES Each airline decides where to travel based on a patchwork of government notices, security advisers, and information-sharing between carriers and states, leading to divergent policies. The 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 crew. Shifting 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 shows. When reciprocal missile and drone attacks broke out between Iran and Israel in April 2024, it started crossing previously avoided Afghanistan instead of Iran. Last 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 comment. Pilots 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 pilots. Flight 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.
