Russia, Ukraine's Bond meets in Türkiye and holds talks after a bold weekend attack in Kiev
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine arrived in Turkey on Monday, with a second round of direct peace talks in just two weeks, although expecting any significant progress towards ending the Three Years’ War after a series of amazing attacks over the weekend.
Ukraine said on Sunday it carried out a surprise attack on four Russian air bases, thousands of kilometers apart and destroyed more than 40 fighter jets. The raid was unprecedented in scope and geographical scope, targeting bases in the Russian Arctic, Siberia and the Far East, more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) from Ukraine.
Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Ukrainian security department who led the action plan, said its success was a “major strike from Russian military forces.” He said the drones attacked simultaneously in three time zones, and the complex logistics took a year and a half to prepare.
On the eve of the second round of peace talks, Ukraine launched the longest attack on Russia, using drones to target Russian fighters. Ukrainian authorities said they had planned for a year and a half.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “a great action.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force clearly defended the air, Russia opened fire on the largest drone (472 total) in Ukraine on Sunday, with a total of 472 drones in Russia since the full invasion in February 2022. This is part of a recent strike campaign in civilian areas of Ukraine.
Low expectations
The negotiations in Istanbul seem unlikely to make much progress in the escalation of the battle. So far, efforts by U.S. leadership to bring both sides to a ceasefire have failed. Ukraine accepted this step, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it.
Senior officials from both countries said that under the critical conditions of stopping the war, the two sides remain far apart. The first round of negotiations in Istanbul on May 16 ended less than two hours later, although both sides agreed to the largest trade in war to date, with hundreds of people released from captivity on each side.
“If the Istanbul meeting doesn't bring anything, it obviously means the urgent need, the urgent need for new sanctions,” Zelenskyy said, targeting Russia.
“Russia is trying to postpone negotiations and extend the war to get additional battlefield gains,” the Washington-based think tank War Institute said Sunday. The ruthless battle has thwarted the goal of U.S. President Donald Trump's goal to quickly end the war.
A week ago, he expressed impatientness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Moscow lashed out at Kiev and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for the third consecutive night.
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Russia's official response to Sunday's attacks has been downplayed, with few reports of state-controlled television. Russia-1 TV Channel spent several minutes on Sunday night reading a brief defense ministry statement before images moved to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian posts.
Zelenskyy said the Kremlin setback would help force it to the negotiating table, even if it had a summer offensive on the battlefield.
“Russia must feel what its losses mean,” he said at a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday.
“Difficult to underestimate” drone attack: analyst
Since the early days of the war, Ukraine has occasionally attacked the Air Force, attacking with Russian-capable strategic bomb attackers, prompting the Russian Air Force to redeploy most people to areas far away from the frontline.
Since Sunday's drones were launched from trucks near five Russian regional bases, military defenses have little time to prepare for them.
Many Russian military bloggers blame the army for failing to build protective shields for bombers, despite previous attacks, but the aircraft is large in size, which is a challenging task.
Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, said the attacks were “a major blow to Russia's strategic air force” and exposed the significant vulnerability of Moscow's military capabilities.
“It's hard to underestimate,” O'Brien wrote in the analysis.
Zhou Yixing exchange
Fierce battle continued along the front line of about 1,000 kilometers.
Regional officials said on Monday that Russian troops shelled the Hesen area in southern Ukraine, killing three people, including 19 of whom injured two children.
In addition, missile strikes and shelling around the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed five people and injured nine people, officials said.
Russia's defense agency reduced its defense by 162 Ukrainian drones overnight and on the Crimea's affiliated Ukrainian Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. Ukrainian air force said Ukrainian defense measures were damaged 52 of the 80 drones launched overnight by Russia.
Putin's adviser Vladimir Medinsky led the Russian delegation in Istanbul and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation.
Officials said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will preside over the talks, and officials from the Turkish Intelligence Agency were also present.
