Russia and Ukraine on Monday swapped plans for ending their three-year war during talks in Istanbul aiming to find a way out of Europe\u2019s largest conflict since World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any deal must not \u201creward\u201d Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but said Kyiv was willing to take the \u201cnecessary steps for peace\u201d. Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia\u2019s invasion, but have yet to make progress towards an agreement. Monday\u2019s talks come a day after Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil \u2014 using drones to hit dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases thousands of kilometres behind the front line. A first round of meetings in Istanbul last month yielded a large-scale prisoner exchange but no pause in the fighting, which has raged since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Monday, the delegations \u201cexchanged documents through the Turkish side, and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of the war,\u201d Zelensky said at a press conference in Vilnius just after the talks in Istanbul concluded. \u201cThe key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression,\u201d he added. Opening the talks at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul \u2014 an Ottoman imperial house on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury five-star hotel \u2014 Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the \u201ceyes of the entire world\u201d were watching. Zelensky had said Kyiv was \u201cready to take the necessary steps for peace\u201d, though the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating positions have long appeared irreconcilable. \u2018Immediate ceasefire\u2019 \u201cIf they are ready to move forward, not just repeat the same previous ultimatums, then there may be good and big news today,\u201d a source in the Ukrainian delegation said ahead of the talks. Ukraine wants a \u201cfull and unconditional ceasefire\u201d to allow space to then discuss a long-term settlement. Russia has repeatedly rejected those calls. Moscow says it wants to address the \u201croot causes\u201d of the conflict \u2014 language typically used to refer to a mix of sweeping demands including limiting Ukraine\u2019s military, banning the country from joining Nato and massive territorial concessions. Kyiv and the West say those concerns are baseless and that Russia\u2019s assault is nothing but an imperialist land grab. Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded, with swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed and millions forced to flee their homes, in Europe\u2019s largest refugee crisis since World War II. \u2018No home\u2019 In the frontline town of Dobropillya in eastern Ukraine, 53-year-old Volodymyr told AFP that he believes the talks in Istanbul would amount to very little. \u201cWe thought that everything would stop. And now there is nothing to wait for. We have no home, nothing. We were almost killed by drones,\u201d he said. In Kramatorsk, a garrison city near the front with trenches and rolls of barbed wire on its outskirts, a Ukrainian serviceman also said the talks in Turkiye would not likely bring out about any results. \u201cI have no faith in them. But it would be great if they could agree to stop, to have some kind of respite, so that we could take our guys, those who died, and so that guys would just stop dying,\u201d he told AFP, sipping a coffee. After months of setbacks for Kyiv\u2019s military, Ukraine said it had carried out an audacious attack on Sunday, damaging some 40 strategic Russian bombers worth $7 billion in a major special operation. Kyiv\u2019s security service said the plan \u2014 18 months in the making \u2014 had involved smuggling drones into Russia, then launching them from near the airbases, thousands of kilometres away from the front lines. On the ground, Russia\u2019s territorial advance gained pace in May, according to AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Ahead of the talks, Russian officials have called for Ukraine to be cut off from Western military support and cede territory still controlled by its army. Kyiv has previously accepted it may only be able to get territory taken by Russia through diplomacy, not fighting. Ukraine also wants concrete Western-backed security guarantees \u2014 like Nato protections or troops on the ground \u2014 that have been ruled out by Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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