Copy in clipboard...
Ukraine attack on Russian bombers overshadows peace talks in Turkey
The talks – the second such direct contacts between the sides since 2022 – had already begun nearly two hours later than scheduled with no explanation of the delay, Reuters reported.
Although the atmosphere was subdued and dialogue brief, the talks did yield an agreement to conduct a new prisoner exchange and Ukraine said another round of talks was on the agenda.
In Russia, before the talks began, angry war bloggers had called on Moscow to deliver a fearsome retaliatory blow against Kiev after Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and elsewhere.
Ukraine and Russia have issued starkly different assessments of the damage done to Russia's fleet of strategic bombers – a key element in its nuclear arsenal – but it was clear from publicly available satellite imagery that Moscow had suffered some serious equipment losses.
"The eyes of the whole world are focused on the contacts here," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had told the Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the start of talks as they faced off against each other on opposite sides of the room in the sumptuous Ciragan Palace by the Bosphorus.
He said the aim of the meeting was to evaluate the conditions for a cease-fire, to discuss a possible meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, and to look at more prisoner exchange opportunities.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed Kiev's delegation, announced after the talks that a new prisoner exchange had been agreed to follow up on the biggest prisoner swap of the war brokered at the last round of talks.
He said the new exchange would focus on those severely injured in the war and on young people.
Umerov also said that Moscow had handed its own draft peace accord to Ukraine and that Kiev – which has drawn up its own version – would review the Russian document.