Russia and Ukraine end latest talks but fall short of truce deal

Henry Meyer and Olesia Safronova, Bloomberg News on Jun 2, 2025

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Russia and Ukraine wrapped up a second round of talks in Istanbul that failed to bring the two sides closer to ending the war, but laid the groundwork for a new exchange of prisoners.

Kyiv demanded an unconditional truce, said Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, the country’s chief negotiator. Russia in turn proposed a ceasefire for two to three days along certain parts of the front to allow the evacuation of war dead, the head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, said.

Moscow also passed along a two-part memorandum, on the terms for peace and for a ceasefire, he said. The two ex-Soviet neighbors agreed to prepare for a new exchange of all heavily wounded POWs as well as young soldiers under 25 years of age. Ukraine also suggested another meeting later this month.

The latest direct peace talks in Istanbul lasted only about an hour and came a day after Kyiv staged one of its boldest aerial attacks inside Russia, destroying long-range bombers and other aircraft. The previous round in mid-May in the Turkish commercial capital ended after nearly two hours with no progress except for a prisoner swap. Monday’s meeting marks only the second time the two warring sides have held public negotiations since the early days of the conflict.

Prospects for peace remain distant despite months of high-profile efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress. Moscow has so far resisted a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and has laid out maximalist demands to end its invasion, now in its fourth year. While Trump has threatened to impose more sanctions on Russia, he’s held off on taking that step.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said the delegation to Istanbul would raise issues including a full and unconditional ceasefire and release of prisoners. Ukraine submitted to Russia during Monday’s talks a list of abducted children whose return the country is seeking, a top aide to Zelenskyy, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram.

“If Russia undermines even this initial agenda, and if the Istanbul meeting brings nothing, that clearly means strong, new sanctions are urgently, urgently needed,” Zelenskyy said during a summit in Vilnius on Monday.

Two members of the Ukrainian delegation met with representatives from the U.K., Germany and Italy ahead of the negotiations with Russia, the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said on Monday.

The Ukrainian leader on Sunday revealed details of an attack that utilized drones hidden in trucks to hit strategic airfields.

Ukraine used 117 drones with people operating inside Russia across three time zones, he said on the X social media platform, adding that about a third of the strategic cruise missile carriers at the airfields were hit.

As a result of the operation, more than 40 Russian aircraft — including the Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3 long-range bombers capable of deploying conventional and nuclear weapons as well as the A-50 — were damaged in the operation, Ukraine’s Security Service chief Vasyl Maliuk, who led the operation, said in a statement.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement on Telegram that attacks occurred at five military airfields across the nation from the Far East and eastern Siberia to locations just several hundred miles from Moscow, but said that only “a few aircraft units” were damaged at two military bases in the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions. The pro-Moscow military blogger Rybar, which has about 1.3 million subscribers on Telegram, estimated that 13 aircraft were damaged and most were long-range bombers.

Some of Russia’s more advanced weapons are dependent on foreign components, such as cruise missiles, Tu-22 bombers, submarines and anti-aircraft radar, which means replacing the lost planes will be very difficult because of sanctions.

Also on Sunday, Moscow launched one of its longest drone and missile attacks against Kyiv with air sirens lasting for more than nine hours, escalating tensions ahead of the peace talks.

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—With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski and Ugur Yilmaz.