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Irish Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
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. READ MORE 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
Al Jazeera
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia, Ukraine agree prisoner swap as talks end in less than two hours
Russian and Ukrainian officials met for less than two hours in Turkiye for their first direct talks in more than three years, aimed at ending the war. The delegations met on Friday at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace in Turkiye, where the two sides failed to agree on a ceasefire despite pressure from United States President Donald Trump to end the war. But before they adjourned, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such swap since the war began. Both sides also discussed a ceasefire and a meeting between their heads of state, according to chief Ukrainian delegate Rustem Umerov. Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed Moscow's delegation, confirmed that both sides agreed to provide each other with detailed ceasefire proposals and a meeting between their heads of state. A Ukrainian source told the Reuters news agency, on condition of anonymity, that Russia's ultimatums to end the war included a demand for Kyiv to withdraw from parts of its territory to obtain a ceasefire, 'and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions'. Russia's demands were 'detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed', the source said. Medinsky said Moscow was satisfied with the Istanbul talks' results and was ready to continue talking to Kyiv. At the palace, the two delegations sat in front of each other, the Russian officials dressed in suits and half the Ukrainians wearing camouflage military uniforms. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who chaired the meeting, told the delegations there were 'two paths' ahead of them. 'One road will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death. The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose,' Fidan said. Russia has said it sees the talks as a continuation of the negotiations that took place in the early weeks of the war in 2022, which included demands on Ukraine to cut the size of its military. Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith said the prisoner exchange, one of the largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, comes as both sides are 'under pressure' from Trump to end the war. 'This could be a way of indicating that there is something worth talking about at these talks,' Smith said. 'We know already though, both sides have very different views on how [a deal] should come about – the Ukrainians want an immediate 30-day ceasefire. The Russians want longer-term talks about Ukraine's status as a neutral country.' As the talks were under way, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv's top priority was 'a full, unconditional and honest ceasefire… to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy'. Zelenskyy, who was attending a European summit in Albania, said if Russia refused, new sanctions against its energy sector and banks should be imposed. While Russia has previously said it wants to end the war diplomatically and is ready to discuss a ceasefire, the prospects for a breakthrough in Istanbul were dim after Russia said President Vladimir Putin would not attend. Expectations lowered further after Trump said there would be no movement towards a ceasefire without a meeting between himself and Putin.
