Ukraine, Russia hold talks in Istanbul day after Kyiv’s stunning drone attacks

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met Monday in Turkey for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the 3-year-old war after a string of stunning attacks over the weekend.

Kyiv officials said a surprise drone attack on Sunday destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, including the remote Arctic, Siberian and Far East regions more than 7,000 km from Ukraine.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “brilliant operation” that would go down in history.

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

In the aftermath of those strikes, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan chaired the peace talks at Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace, a residence dating from the Ottoman Empire.

The talks aim to discuss both sides’ ceasefire terms, he said, adding that “the whole world’s eyes are focused on the contacts and discussions you will have here”.

The US-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted that step, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, while Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, headed the Kremlin team.

The Russian and Ukrainian delegations, each numbering more than a dozen people, sat at a U-shaped table across from each other with Turkish officials between them. Many of the Ukrainians wore military fatigues.

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

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday that “Russia is attempting to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to make additional battlefield gains”.

The relentless fighting has frustrated US President Donald Trump’s goal of bringing about a quick end to the war. A week ago, he expressed impatience with Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night. Trump said on social media that Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”

A round of renewed direct talks, held May 16, also in Istanbul, ended after less than two hours. While both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, there was no breakthrough.