The Turkish city of Istanbul is set to host a second round of negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations on Monday, hours after Kyiv reportedly launched a significant drone attack on four military airbases deep within Russia, and Moscow conducted what was described as its largest barrage across Ukraine since 2022.
An Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson announced on Monday the arrival of an Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul for the talks. Meanwhile, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, stated that Russia had received a memorandum of understanding from Ukraine regarding a peaceful settlement of the conflict, written in both Ukrainian and English, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
A Turkish foreign ministry source told the agency that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will chair the negotiations after delivering an opening address, adding that Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin will also participate in the discussions.
Istanbul previously brought the two sides to the table in May, marking their first meeting in three years. The city is scheduled to host their second meeting at 1:00 PM local time (10:00 GMT) at the Çırağan Palace.
Medinsky arrived in Istanbul on Sunday leading the Russian delegation, the same team that participated in the previous round. The Ukrainian delegation has been expanded from 12 to 14 individuals, though its leader, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, remains unchanged.
In the first round of negotiations, both sides agreed to a large prisoner exchange, “1000 for 1000 prisoners,” presented detailed perspectives on a potential ceasefire, and agreed to continue negotiations. The countries announced that the agreed-upon prisoner exchange was completed on May 25.
Moscow Remains Reserved
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko stated that Moscow hopes for “more tangible results” from the second round of talks.
Speaking to the Sputnik news agency on the sidelines of the “Russia and China: Cooperation in the New Era” conference, Rudenko added, “We expressed hope to our friends in Beijing that the upcoming round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul (…) will yield more specific, clear agreements and more tangible results.”
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated that the Russian delegation is “ready to present a memo on the settlement to the Ukrainian delegation.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, said Moscow considers it “wrong to disclose its negotiating positions via the media.”
Russian news agencies had earlier quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Lavrov discussed with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on Sunday the prospects for a settlement in Ukraine and the Russian-Ukrainian talks scheduled for Monday in Turkey.
Proposed Roadmap
Earlier on Sunday, a document seen by Reuters revealed that Ukrainian negotiators participating in the talks would present the Russian side with a proposed “roadmap” to achieve a permanent peaceful settlement to the three-year war between the two countries.
The proposed roadmap begins with a complete ceasefire for at least 30 days, followed by the return of all prisoners held by both countries, along with Ukrainian children who were moved to Russian-controlled territories. This would then be followed by a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The roadmap stipulates that Moscow and Kyiv, with the participation of the United States and Europe, will work to formulate conditions upon which both countries can agree to end the ongoing war.
Ukrainian officials said a few days ago that they had sent the roadmap to the Russian side ahead of the scheduled talks in Istanbul.
The framework conditions put forward by Kyiv in the document are very similar to those previously presented, including no restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength after a peace agreement is reached, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine that have come under Moscow’s control, and the payment of reparations to Ukraine.
The document also stated that negotiations regarding territory would begin from the current position of the frontline. These conditions differ sharply from the demands announced by Russia in recent weeks.
Ukrainian Attack Reported
As the parties prepared to meet in Istanbul, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday that Ukraine had carried out drone attacks on military airbases in Russia’s Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, and that some aircraft had caught fire.
The Ukrainian attacks reached deep into Russia’s northwestern, southwestern, and eastern regions. Ukrainian social media accounts stated that the Ukrainian army had conducted a large-scale operation using drones against Russia.
The Financial Times reported that the Ukrainian attack targeted four military airbases deep inside Russia, which were used to launch strategic bombers for air raids, noting that the attack was “one of the most daring operations since the war began.”
In a report published on Sunday, the newspaper quoted a Ukrainian official as saying that “more than 40 aircraft have been damaged so far,” indicating that the attack targeted four Russian military airbases in “one coordinated operation” thousands of kilometres from the frontline.
The official added that “planes caught fire at the Belaya airbase, located in southeastern Siberia about 5,500 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border, and at the Olenya base in the Kola Peninsula near Murmansk, in addition to the Dyagilevo airbase about 200 kilometres southeast of Moscow, and the Ivanovo base located 300 kilometres northeast of the Russian capital.”
He continued: “The attack hit 34% of strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia’s main airfields.”
A video, reportedly captured by a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone and published by the same official, showed a Russian airbase engulfed in flames while drones were attacking a number of aircraft.
Russian Shelling
On the other side, Russia launched a massive drone attack early on Sunday, described as the largest since 2022, deploying 472 drones across Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Reports indicated explosions in the cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, while air defences were activated over Kyiv.
The Ukrainian Air Force stated that Russia also launched three ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles, noting that strikes were recorded in 18 different locations.
A missile attack on a military training camp in the east of the country reportedly killed 12 people and injured more than 60 others. Ivan Fedorov, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said that Russian shelling and an air attack killed four people in areas outside the city of Zaporizhzhia in the south.
The Ukrainian Ground Forces did not disclose the location of the attack or the type of missile used. Following the incident, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Mykhailo Drapatiy, announced his resignation.
In a statement, he said: “The absence of clear accountability, and impunity are a fatal feature of the army that I tried to eradicate in the Ground Forces, but if tragedies recur, my efforts were not enough.”
