Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Turkey on Monday for a new round of peace talks aimed at ending the ongoing war, now in its third year, though expectations remained minimal for any significant breakthrough.
According to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, Ukraine’s delegation, led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, arrived in Istanbul for the meeting. The Russian side, headed by President Vladimir Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky, reached Turkey on Sunday evening, Russian state media reported.
Turkish officials said the meeting was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. local time, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan overseeing the proceedings. Representatives from Turkey’s intelligence agency were also reportedly in attendance. However, the Ukrainian side stated the talks would begin at midday, and the timing discrepancy could not immediately be clarified.
Despite the diplomatic engagement, both sides appear far apart on the core issues needed to halt the fighting. In the meantime, hostilities have continued unabated along the approximately 1,000-kilometre front line, with each side launching strikes deep into the other’s territory.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Security Service claimed that a drone attack carried out by Kyiv destroyed over 40 Russian aircraft inside Russia. In response, Moscow launched a barrage of missile and drone attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that its air defence systems shot down 162 Ukrainian drones overnight across eight Russian regions, including the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force reported it had downed 52 of the 80 drones launched by Russia overnight.
In a separate incident, two ballistic missiles struck a residential area in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. One missile landed near an apartment block, while the other hit a road close to a school.
“Standing next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been,” Terekhov wrote in a statement accompanied by a photograph of the site. “A few more meters — and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes — and cars, buses would have been on the road.”
No casualties were reported in the incident.
The latest round of peace talks marks the second direct meeting between the two countries in just over two weeks, but with little movement on either side, a negotiated settlement remains elusive.