Latest news with #peace negotiations
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Russia and Ukraine agree on prisoner swap and handover of bodies
Russia and Ukraine have agreed a large-scale transfer of prisoners and fallen soldiers following a second round of peace negotiations hosted by Turkey, but Moscow dismissed a demand from Kyiv to hand over 'stolen' Ukrainian children. Delegates from the warring nations met in Istanbul again today, less than a month after their first round of direct negotiations ended within two hours. Today's talks were over in even shorter order. Only an hour had passed when the negotiators emerged, though not before they managed to agree a major exchange of dead and detained personnel. Under the terms of the agreement, some 6,000 bodies of fighters from each side killed in action will be handed over for burial. At least 1,000 prisoners of war on each side will be exchanged along with all soldiers under the age of 25 and those who suffered serious injuries in combat, Ukraine's lead negotiator and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov told reporters in Istanbul. Despite the positive outcome on prisoner transfers, the negotiations appeared to yield no progress toward the full and unconditional ceasefire desired by Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said their Russian counterparts only offered partial two-to-three-day ceasefires at certain points of the frontline to allow for the recovery of those killed in action. Ukraine's state centre for strategic communications, Spravdi, said Russia was only present at the talks to avoid further sanctions from the United States, whose President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with the slow pace of negotiations . Russia's lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky in turn dismissed a Ukrainian request for Moscow to return children forcibly relocated from the occupied regions into Russia. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Vladimir Putin and Russia's children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova on war crimes charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. 'Don't put on a show for bleeding-heart European old ladies with no children of their own,' Medinsky is said to have claimed during the talks after he was presented with an official list of 339 children Kyiv claims have been abducted by Russian authorities. There were doubts today's proceedings would return any progress toward a proper ceasefire even before talks got underway in Istanbul. While Ukraine presented their negotiating papers and requests to the Russian side one week in advance of the talks, Moscow's representatives only gave their terms today, leaving Kyiv's negotiators with no time to study them. The meeting in Istanbul also came just one day after Ukraine's SBU security service pulled off a breathtakingly coordinated operation that saw a swarm of kamikaze drones demolish dozens of Russian military planes thousands of miles from Ukrainian soil. The stunning attack - reportedly more than 18 months in the making - represents a glaring intelligence failure on the part of Russia's security apparatus and has been lauded as a great success by Zelensky. That followed one of the largest single-day drone and missile attacks on Ukraine by Russia of the war so far. Yet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the progress made during today's talks was superb and expressed a desire to host a face-to-face summit between Zelensky , Putin and Trump in the near future. 'My greatest wish for both sides is to bring both Vladimir Putin and Zelensky together in Istanbul or Ankara, and even to bring Mr Trump to their side, if they accept,' he said. Many analysts doubt that Putin has any interest in meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart and have predicted that ceasefire talks between Kyiv and Moscow will go round in circles unless Washington steps up to play a more significant role. Zelensky himself said that 'if Russia turns the Istanbul meeting into an empty talk, there must be a new level of pressure, new sanctions, and not just from Europe,' in an apparent reference to US threats to further penalise Russia. 'Without pressure, Putin will just keep playing games with everyone who wants this war to end,' he said. The relentless fighting has frustrated Trump's goal of bringing about a quick end to the war. A week ago, he expressed impatience with Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night. Trump said on social media that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!' but offered no further details. Ukraine's Umerov told reporters in Istanbul that officials in Kyiv would need a week to review the Russian document setting out fresh ceasefire proposals before deciding on a response. The Ukrainian delegation offered to enter a third round of talks on a date between June 20 and June 30, but Russia is yet to respond. In the meantime, Putin and his military officials are likely to be plotting revenge for Ukraine's so-called 'Operation Spiderweb' that Kyiv claims damaged or destroyed up to one-third of the aircraft used to deliver cruise missile strikes on Ukraine. Because Sunday's drones were launched from trucks close to the bases in five Russian regions, military defences had virtually no time to prepare for them. The attack was so devastating that Russian military bloggers termed the operation 'Russia's Pearl Harbor'. The attacks were 'a big blow to Russian strategic air power' and exposed significant vulnerabilities in Moscow's military capabilities, said Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Trump seems to be finally realising that the Russians think he's an idiot
With the peace negotiations poised to re-start, Russia launched a massive drone and missile strike against Ukraine this weekend. This capped a week that has seen continuous attacks against civilian targets. The Kremlin insists, of course, that Russia is attacking military targets, but even the most cynical Russian supporters would choke on the idea that every hospital and school in Ukraine is full of tanks and missiles. Even President Trump seems to have eventually concluded that Putin is taking him for a fool, after his vitriolic outburst on Sunday against the Russian leader. On Sunday the US president ranted that he 'does not like' what Putin is doing, and called him 'absolutely crazy'. To add fuel to the fire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested in response that Trump was suffering from 'emotional overload', and Russian newspapers are leading with the story that the US government is sanctioning Europe with high tariffs but not Russia. The Russian papers may be full of anti-Ukraine and European rhetoric, but they are also full of the perilous state of the Russian economy. Everything except tank production is in free-fall downwards – and tank production is still nowhere near enough to match the grievous losses of the war. If Saudi and US threats to drive oil prices below $50 a barrel are realised, the Russian war machine is likely to grind to a halt by this year's end. Worryingly, there is also widespread assertion in the Russian media that 'legally' the Soviet Union still exists, and the Special Military Operation in Ukraine is an internal matter. According to this logic that would also be the case if Russia invaded the Baltic States and Poland – as those countries expect, which is why they are building up their forces as fast as possible. But, finally, President Trump seems to have realised that the Russians think he is an idiot. They are now openly goading him and the penny has finally dropped. The US president has belatedly realised that the 'bad guys' are in Moscow and not in Kyiv and other European capitals. The big mistake Moscow has now made was to neglect Trump's vanity. This is an error that Vladimir Putin may live to regret. Trump, in his anger at the obvious Russian disrespect, may now push the sanctions button and deprive Moscow of the vital oil revenue which allows it to sustain its massive army and creaking economy. Frankly, I hope – and most outside the Kremlin are probably hoping with me – that Donald Trump is now as mad as hell, and will put the boot into Russia where it hurts the most. That's the best chance of ending the war, rather than trying to negotiate with Putin.
CBS News
07-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Vance says Russia "asking for too much" in opening offer to end war with Ukraine
Washington — Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that the Trump administration believes Russia is "asking for too much" in its initial offer on a deal to end its war with Ukraine. During remarks at the Munich Leaders Meeting, the vice president underscored the importance of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and said that the U.S. is interested in a "long-term settlement" that would bring a stop to the military confrontation launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin three years ago. "Certainly the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was you're asking for too much," Vance said. "But this is how negotiations unfold." He continued: "I wouldn't say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution. What I would say is right now, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they're asking for too much." The U.S. and Ukraine said in March that Kyiv was ready to accept a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, an agreement that was reached after a delegation of Trump administration officials held several hours of negotiations with Ukrainian officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But Vance said that the Russians decided that such a pause was "not in our strategic interest." "We've tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the what would the long-term settlement look like? And we've tried to consistently advance the ball," the vice president said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month in an interview with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that the Kremlin is "ready to reach a deal" with the U.S. on the war in Ukraine and said there are "several signs that we are moving in the right direction." While Mr. Trump claimed that he would broker an end to Russia's war with Ukraine, Russia's military has continued to launch strikes. The president has repeatedly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, including calling him a "dictator without elections." Last month, Mr. Trump attacked Zelenskyy after he said Ukraine would not recognize Russia's occupation of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, claiming the statement "will do nothing but prolong the 'killing field.'" However, later last month, Mr. Trump posted on social media that he was not "not happy" with Russian strikes on Kyiv, imploring Putin to halt the attacks. "Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying," Mr. Trump wrote. "Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!"
