Ukraine yesterday said it was ready to take “necessary steps for peace” at talks with Russia in Istanbul, where the two sides were to exchange plans on how they want to end the three-year war, Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.
Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, but have yet to make significant progress towards an elusive agreement.
Yesterday’s talks come a day after Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil — hitting dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases thousands of kilometers behind the front line.
Photo: Reuters / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
A first round of talks 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.
The second round was scheduled to get underway at 10am GMT at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul.
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan was to mediate the talks.
“We are ready to take the necessary steps for peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at a summit of NATO members in Vilnius ahead of the talks.
A source in the negotiating team urged Russia to avoid repeating its previous hardline demands and show “flexibility.”
“If they are ready to move forward, not just repeat the same previous ultimatums, then there may be good and big news today,” the source said.
Moscow said it would present a “memorandum” of its peace terms, having resisted pressure by Ukraine to send its demands in advance.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, the two sides remain far apart.
Zelensky on Sunday refreshed his call for an immediate halt to the fighting, something Kyiv says is a necessary first step to discussions of long-term peace.
“First — a full and unconditional ceasefire. Second — the release of prisoners. Third — the return of abducted children,” he said in a social media post on Sunday.
He also called for the sides to discuss a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The key issues can only be resolved by the leaders,” Zelenskiy said.
After months of setbacks for Kyiv’s military, Ukraine said it had carried out an audacious attack on Sunday, damaging about 40 strategic Russian bombers worth US$7 billion in a major special operation.
Kyiv’s security service said the plan, 18 months in the making, had involved smuggling drones into Russia, then launching them from near the airbases, thousands of kilometers away from the front lines.
For months, Russian troops have been advancing on the ground, particularly in the northeastern Sumy region, where Putin ordered his forces to establish a “buffer zone” along the border.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS