The latest round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey went on for over an hour. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met at Ciragan Palace in Turkey on Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, in an attempt to put an end to the three-year long war and a day after Kyiv launched a massive drone attack, targetting Moscow’s airbases.
The latest round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine went on for over an hour. Defense minister Rustem Umerov led the Ukranian delegation as said in a message posted on the Ukrainian Embassy WhatsApp group by Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhvi.
Ukraine’s Umerov said after the meeting that a new Prisoners of War (PoW) exchange was agreed, to focus on severely injured, and young people. Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan presided over the talks. Turkish intelligence agency officials were also present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, speaking in Lithuania’s Vilnius, Ukraine President Zelensky said both sides “exchanged documents through the Turkish side, and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of the war.” Recent statements by senior officials of both countries indicate that they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war.
Fierce fighting has in the meantime continued along the front line, roughly spanning to a length of 1,000-kilometers, with both sides have hit each other’s territory with deep strikes.
Ukraine’s Sunday drone attack
On Sunday, June 1, a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep inside Russia, said Ukraine’s Security Service, followed by Moscow pounding Ukraine with missiles and drones. On the same day, Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, said Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday.
Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of the 80 drones launched by Russia, said the Ukrainian air force. Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv this morning, with one hitting near a school, the city’s mayor said.
