Russia, Ukraine meets the latest peace talks, such as both launch -national attacks

Delegates from Russia and Ukraine He met in Turkiye on Monday in the second round of direct peace talks in a little more than two weeks, although the expectations were low for any major progress in ending the three -year war after a series of amazing attacks during the weekend.

Officials said that the Ukrainian delegation was led by Defense Secretary Rustum Omrov. Russian government media reported that Vladimir Medinski, an assistant to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, headed the Kremlin team.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Vian headed the talks at the city’s Cigran Palace and gave an opening letter to celebrate the beginning.

The recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate that they remain far from the main circumstances of the war.

Ukraine said on Sunday that it launched an amazing sudden attack on four Russian air bases, thousands of kilometers (miles), destroying more than 40 warplanes. The raid was unprecedented in its scope and geographical arrival, as it targeted rules in the Russian Arctic, Siberia and Al -Aqsa more than 7,000 km (4,300 miles) from Ukraine.

The head of the Ukrainian Security Department, Vasil Maleyuk, who led the planning of the operation, said her success is a “great slap in the face of Russian military force.” He said that the drones were struck simultaneously in three time areas and took more than a year and a half to prepare.

Ukrainian President Folodimir Zelinski described it as a “great process.”

Meanwhile, Russia has launched on Sunday the largest number of drones-472-in Ukraine since it was widely invaded in February 2022, the Air Force in Ukraine said in a clear effort to overcome the air defenses. This was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in the civilian regions of Ukraine.

The US -led efforts to push the two sides have failed to accept the ceasefire so far. Ukraine accepted the move, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it.

“Russia is trying to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to achieve additional gains in the battlefield,” said the Washington -based Washing Center Institute, based on the Washington -based research center.

The uncompromising fighting has thwarted the goal of US President Donald Trump is a quick ending war. A week ago, he expressed his patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Moscow Kiev bombed and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third night in a row. Trump said on social media that Putin “has become completely crazy!”

Senior officials in both countries indicated that the two sides remain away from the main circumstances to stop the war.

The first round of the talks, which was held on May 16, also ended in Istanbul, less than two hours. While both sides agreed to swap a large prisoner, there was no penetration.

Ukraine was victorious after targeting the remote Russian air bases. The official Russian response was silent, as the attack did not get slight coverage on the state -controlled TV. The Russia-1 TV channel spent on Sunday evening for a little more than one minute, with a brief Ministry of Defense statement before the pictures were transferred to Russian drones on Ukrainian positions.

Zelinski said that Kremlin’s setbacks will help forcing them at the negotiating table, even as her summer attack on the battlefield was continuing.

“Russia should feel what its losses mean. This is what will do it towards diplomacy,” he said at a summit on Monday in Felnis, with Leituania with leaders from the northern countries and countries in the East NATO wing.

Going now

• Ukraine drone attack destroys 40 aircraft in depth inside Russia

• Canadian industry warns that Trump’s new solid definitions will lead to “collective disorder”

Ukraine has sometimes injured air bases that host Russia’s nuclear strategic bombers since the early war, prompting the Russian Air Force to re -spread most of them to the areas beyond the confrontation line.

Since the drones on Sunday were fired from trucks close to the targeted bases in five Russian regions, military defenses had almost no time to prepare for them.

Many Russian military bloggers dismantled the army for failing to build protective shields for the detonators despite the previous attacks, but the large size of the aircraft makes this a difficult task.

The attacks were a “major blow to Russian strategic powers” and revealed the large weaknesses in the military capabilities in Moscow, according to Philus Operation, a professor of strategic studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

“It is difficult to reduce it.”

Zelenskyy said: “If the Istanbul meeting does not bring anything, then this clearly means strong new sanctions, quickly against Russia.

International concerns about the consequences of the war, as well as trade tensions, led to the low prices of Asian stocks on Monday, while oil prices rose.

Violent fighting continued along the front line, which is approximately 1000 km (620 miles), and both sides hit each other with deep strikes.

Regional officials said on Monday that the Russian forces arrested the South Jeresson region in Ukraine, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including two children.

Officials said a missile strike and bombing around the southern city of Zaporesia, killing five people and wounding nine others.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that the Russian air defenses shot down 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as on the attached Ukrainian Crimea.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that the Ukrainian air defenses were damaged 52 out of 80 drones that Russia fired overnight.

–The Associated Press Susan Fraser in Ankara, Turki; Hanna Arheruhova in Kyiv, Ukraine and Jeer Moluson in Berlin contributed to this report.