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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Second round of Ukraine-Russia talks end with PoW deal but no ceasefire
Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul ended without agreement on a ceasefire on Monday, but with both sides agreeing to exchange more prisoners. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the two sides had agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200 PoWs. He said an agreement had also been made to return the remains of killed service personnel, but added that this would take careful preparation. Zelenskyy did not take part in the talks but was speaking during a visit to Lithuania, where he called for stronger sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to a ceasefire. He said his negotiators had given their Russian counterparts a list of nearly 400 abducted Ukrainian children that Kyiv wanted Moscow to return home, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them. Ukrainian officials said that the focus of the prisoner exchange should be the wounded and sick as well as young soldiers between 18 and 25 years old. Russian officials confirmed that 'all' sick and wounded prisoners would be swapped, and that the exchange would involve at least 1,000 PoWs. Monday's negotiations took place at the Çırağan Palace, a vast 19th-century Ottoman edifice on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury hotel. In one of its expansive conference chambers, the two delegations – each about a dozen strong – sat at long tables facing each other, about 10 metres apart. The Russians all came in dark suits, while the Ukrainians were mostly in military uniform. The whole meeting took less than two hours. After the talks, Ukraine's head negotiator and defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said the return of the abducted children 'is a fundamental priority for us'. 'If Russia is genuinely committed to a peace process, the return of at least half the children on this list is positive,' Umerov said. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed only that it had received a list of 339 names of people Ukraine wanted returned, but did not comment further. The international criminal court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and a senior aide in 2023 for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. At Monday's meeting in Istanbul, Ukrainian officials said that the Russians rejected Kyiv's call for an unconditional ceasefire of at least a month, but had instead handed over a written proposal , which the Ukrainians said they would need more time to study before responding. They suggested the talks should reconvene towards the end of June. The Russian state news agency, RIA, said the Russian document proposed two options for a ceasefire, one of which would require Ukraine to begin a complete withdrawal of its troops from four of its regions occupied by Russia. RIA described the second option only as a 'package' containing a number of unspecified conditions. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said meanwhile his government wanted to arrange a summit between Zelenskyy and Putin. 'My desire is to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara – also to invite Trump to this meeting as well,' Erdogan said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara. 'We will take steps for this meeting after the latest talks.' Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he is ready to meet Putin and on Monday Umerov restated Kyiv's desire for a summit. 'We believe that all the key issues can only be solved at the level of leaders … with the possible involvement of other leaders such as the president of the United States,' the defence minister said. Heorhii Tykhyi, the Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson, said: 'If Putin says he is ready to meet tomorrow, our president Zelenskyy is ready to meet him tomorrow.' Last month, Zelenskyy challenged Putin to meet him in Ankara for a summit suggested by Donald Trump. However, the Russian leader did not respond and sent mid-level officials to the talks instead. Briefing reporters after Monday's talks, Medinsky said that the memorandum given to the Ukrainian delegation included proposed 'steps towards a full ceasefire'. He added that Moscow had suggested short ceasefires of two or three days at some parts of the front 'so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers'. But he did not specify where Russia was proposing such local truces should take place. The Ukrainian side did not respond publicly to the proposal. Both sides stepped up their military operations before the Istanbul talks. Ukraine carried out a complex drone strike on targeting Russian bomber planes on four military airfields across Russia, as far away as Siberia. Related: Operation Spiderweb: a visual guide to Ukraine's destruction of Russian aircraft Ukrainian officials said that Sunday's remote-controlled drone operation, codename Operation Spiderweb, had been 18 months in the planning, and had succeeded in damaging or destroying 41 planes including Tu-160 and Tu-22 bombers, as well as Tu-95s used to launch cruise missiles against Ukraine. Ukrainian intelligence put the total of Russian material losses at $7bn (£5.2bn). Ukraine's prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, called it a 'very accurate military operation', adding that as long as Russia rejected a ceasefire and continued to carry out attacks on Ukrainian civilians, Ukraine could continue to develop new ways to hamper Russia's capacity to carry out missile or drone attacks. 'Innovative technologies played a really crucial role in this operation, and these technologies now are the game-changers on the battlefield. And I believe that Ukraine has many other ideas, technologies, how to move ahead,' Shmyhal told the France24 television channel. 'We are working constantly to do our best to [restrict] Russian possibility to attack Ukraine … We continue to clear our sky from Russian bombers, and we will do the same in other spheres, including on the ground.'
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Russia says situation at Zaporizhzhia plant under control but situation is complex
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains under control, although it remains very complex after an attack by Ukrainian forces on power facilities, theRIA state news agency reported on Tuesday. RIA cited Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom. Russia-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia said earlier on Tuesday that Ukrainian attacks had triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in Ukraine's south, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- General
- Reuters
Russia says situation at Zaporizhzhia plant under control but situation is complex
MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains under control, although it remains very complex after an attack by Ukrainian forces on power facilities, theRIA state news agency reported on Tuesday. RIA cited Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom. Russia-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia said earlier on Tuesday that Ukrainian attacks had triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in Ukraine's south, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Business Wire
a day ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Partners Group hires Chief Investment Strategist for its Private Wealth and Retirement business
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, has appointed Anastasia Amoroso as Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist for Private Wealth and Retirement. As Chief Investment Strategist, Anastasia will have responsibility for providing macroeconomic, private markets, and portfolio management insights to wealth advisors and individual joins Partners Group from iCapital, where she held the role of Chief Investment Strategist for the last four years. Prior to that, she held senior roles in investment strategy and portfolio management at J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. Anastasia will be based in New York and will join Partners Group at the end of June. The Chief Investment Strategist appointment is the latest in a series of key leadership hires intended to support the growth of Partners Group's Private Wealth business, particularly in the US. In February, Phil Shankweiler joined Partners Group as Managing Director and Head of RIA Sales, with responsibility for business development in the US RIA market. Phil, who is based in New York, joined the firm from Starwood Capital Group, where he was Head of RIA and Multi-Family Office Fundraising. Prior to that, he held a series of leadership roles in fundraising at Hartford Funds. Prior to this, Heather Grubbs joined as Managing Director and Global Head of Private Wealth Marketing, based in Denver. Heather's previous roles include Head of Marketing Communications at Global Endowment Management, Managing Director in Marketing at Ares Wealth Management Solutions, and Chief Marketing Officer at Black Creek Group. Prior to that, she held senior marketing roles at Fidelity Investments and Janus Capital Group. Last year was a record fundraising year for Partners Group's evergreen programs, which contributed 39% of new AuM to the firm in 2024. Having launched the private markets industry's first evergreen fund in 2001, today Partners Group is a global leader in evergreen offerings with USD 48 billion in AuM across more than 20 funds. Partners Group launched its flagship Global Value SICAV private equity evergreen strategy in 2007, followed in the US by the first private equity 1940 Act Fund in 2009. Today, the two funds are among the largest of their kind with around USD 25 billion in combined client assets. In September 2024, Partners Group announced a strategic partnership with BlackRock to launch a first-of-its kind model portfolio solution streamlining retail wealth access to private equity, private credit, and real assets. Robert Collins, Partner and Head of US Private Wealth, Partners Group, states: 'I am delighted to welcome Anastasia, Phil, and Heather to Partners Group at this exciting time for our Private Wealth business. We have been at the forefront of innovation in this space for more than 20 years, driven by our longstanding commitment to making institutional-quality private markets investments accessible to all investors. With the addressable market anticipated to keep growing, Anastasia, Phil, and Heather all have extremely valuable roles to play in building Partners Group's Private Wealth business.' Partners Group is one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, with around 1,800 professionals and over USD 150 billion in overall assets under management. The firm has investment programs and custom mandates spanning private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and royalties. With its heritage in Switzerland and its primary presence in the Americas in Colorado, Partners Group is built differently from the rest of the industry. The firm leverages its differentiated culture and its operationally oriented approach to identify attractive investment themes and to transform businesses and assets into market leaders. For more information, please visit or follow us on LinkedIn.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Ukraine and Russia meet in Istanbul for new peace talks amid renewed violence
Listen to article 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, but the two sides are still far apart on how to end the war and the fighting is stepping up. US President Donald Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace, but so far they have not and the White House has repeatedly warned the United States will "walk away" from the war if the two sides are too stubborn to reach a peace deal. The first round of talks on May 16 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. After keeping the world guessing on whether Ukraine would even turn up for the second round, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would meet with Russian officials in Istanbul. The Russian delegation will be 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. 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, while the Kremlin launched 472 drones at Ukraine, Ukraine's air force said, the highest nightly total of the war. 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. 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. 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. 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. Ukraine's delegation will also include its deputy foreign minister, as well as several military and intelligence officials, according to an executive order by Zelenskiy on Sunday. In June last year, 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 113,100 square km, about the same size as the US state of Ohio. 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. Trump has called Putin "crazy" and berated Zelenskiy in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said that he thinks peace is achievable and that if Putin delays then he could impose tough sanctions on Russia.
