Russia, Ukraine meet for latest peace talks as both launch attacks

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia are meeting in Turkiye for direct peace talks, however expectations are low for any significant progress.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkiye on Monday for the second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war after a string of stunning attacks over the weekend.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, officials said. Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, headed the Kremlin team, Russian state media reported.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan chaired the talks at the city’s Ciragan Palace and gave an opening speech to mark their start.

Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war.

Ukraine said Sunday it launched a spectacular surprise attack on four Russian airbases thousands of kilometers (miles) apart, destroying more than 40 warplanes. The raid was unprecedented in its scope and geographic reach, targeting bases in Russia’s Arctic, Siberia and Far East more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) from Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian security service, Vasyl Maliuk, who led the planning of the operation, said its success was “a major slap in the face for Russia’s military power.” He said the drones struck simultaneously in three time zones and the complex logistics took over a year and a half to prepare.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “brilliant operation.”

Meanwhile, Russia on Sunday fired the biggest number of drones — 472 — at Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s air force said, in an apparent effort to overwhelm air defenses. That was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in civilian areas of Ukraine.