In the Turkish city of Istanbul, the round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine began the second of its kind in a little more than two weeks, amid low expectations to achieve any tangible progress in ending the 3 -year war, especially after a series of major attacks yesterday.
According to sources in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan He heads the meetings with the participation of the head of the Turkish Intelligence Service Ibrahim Qalin.
“We are ready to take the necessary steps to facilitate reaching the peace of Yen Russia and Ukraine, and we value the support of President (Donald) Trump to achieve peace between the two municipalities, and we hope to achieve concrete results in the talks,” Fidan said at the start of the meetings.
Hiueri Tichy, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a letter published on the WhatsApp Group of his country’s embassy in Ankara, that the Ukrainian delegation headed by the Minister of Defense The streets of street He was in Istanbul to attend today’s meeting.
Zelinski prevails
For his part, the Ukrainian president has anticipated Volodimir Zellinski The meetings start by demanding more sanctions on Russia if it caused the failure of these commissions, indicating his country’s readiness to “take the necessary steps to achieve peace.”
The Ukrainian president said, if Russia has undermined Istanbul talks and has not resulted in a result. “There will be an urgent need to impose new sanctions,” said the Ukrainian president.
“We are ready to take the necessary steps to achieve peace,” Zellinski said during a meeting with NATO leaders (NATO) in Lithuania.
He added that if Russia sets up Istanbul talks and did not resulted in a result, it will “urgently need to impose new sanctions”.
On the same level, “Agence France Presse” quoted a source in the Ukrainian delegation as saying that his country’s delegation “came to Istanbul with a clear program and a desire to take great steps towards peace and we hope that the Russian side will not repeat the same requirements.”
Russian delegation
The Russian delegation is headed in today’s negotiations, Vladimir Midinski, who is an assistant to the president Vladimir Putin After the first round, he was martyred with what happened with the general and French statesman Napoleon Bonaparte in the past to confirm that the war and negotiations must always take place at the same time.
Midinski, the chief of Kremlin negotiator, said yesterday that Moscow had received the draft of the Ukrainian memorandum, and told the Russian Information Agency that the Kremlin would respond to it today.
“Midinski will make some contacts on the sidelines of the negotiations in Istanbul,” Sputnik news agency quoted a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry today as saying.
The source stated that the Russian delegation may make a statement after a meeting with the Ukrainian side, noting that there is no information on the period of negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul.
Putin had proposed the idea of direct talks for the first time after Ukraine and European powers demanded him to agree to the ceasefire, which was rejected by the Kremlin.
Putin said that Russia would set a draft note that defines the outlines of a possible peace agreement, and then only will discuss the ceasefire.
American failure
US President Donald Trump demanded Russia and Ukraine to bring peace, but they have not yet reached an agreement, and warned White House Repeated that US You will withdraw from efforts to end the war if the two sides are stubborn without reaching a peace agreement
The US -led efforts to push the two sides have failed to accept the ceasefire. Ukraine accepted this step, but the Kremlin practically rejected it.
The Institute of War Studies, a Washington -based research center, estimated on Sunday evening that “Russia is trying to delay negotiations and prolong the war to achieve additional gains in the battlefield.”
It is noteworthy that the first round of the talks between them, which was held on May 16, also in Istanbul, concluded after less than two hours. While the two sides agreed on a major exchange of prisoners, no significant progress was made.
Mutual attacks
The violent fighting continued along the confrontation line, which is about 1,000 km long, and the two sides exchanged intensive air strikes.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that the Russian air defenses shot down 162 Ukrainian marches over 8 Russian regions during the night, in addition to the Ukrainian Crimea, which was included in Russia.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that its air defenses had damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia during the last night.
The mayor of Kharkif, northeast of Ukraine, stated that two Baltinian missiles were a lively residential beating, one of whom fell near a school.
Ukraine announced on Sunday that it launched a sudden and amazing attack on five Russian air bases separated by thousands of kilometers, ranging from air bases close to Moscow and targets in the Russian Arctic, Siberia and Al -Aqsa East. The goals were more than 7,000 km from Ukraine.
Ukraine has claimed the destruction of more than 40 Russian warplanes, while Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinski described it as a “wonderful operation” that took more than a year of planning.