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.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT: US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the nation’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE on social media said that it is investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run nation. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, but had still not pinpointed the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said that
‘HEALTH ISSUE’: More than 250 women are hospitalized every day due to complications from unsafe abortions, and about three die, a study showed Jane had been bleeding heavily for days before finally seeking help, not from a hospital, but from the man who sold her the pills meant to end her six-week pregnancy. Abortions are strictly outlawed in the mainly Catholic Philippines, forcing women to turn to a patchwork of providers operating in the online shadows. While rare in practice, Philippine law allows for prison terms of up to six years for abortion patients and providers, leaving thousands of Filipinas to search for solutions in online forums where unlicensed sellers promote abortifacients. “It was very painful, as if my abdomen was being twisted,” said Jane, whose
RSS