Delegations from Russia and Ukraine arrived in Turkey on Monday on its second round of direct peace talks in a little more than two weeks, although expectations were low for any major progress in ending the three -year war after a series of amazing attacks during the weekend.
Ukraine said on Sunday that it launched a sudden attack on four Russian air bases, thousands of kilometers away, 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 service, Vasil Maleyuk, who led the planning of the operation, said her success is a “great slap in the face of the Russian military authority.” He said that the drones were struck simultaneously in three time areas and took more than a year and a half to prepare.
On the eve of the second round of peace talks, Ukraine launched its longest attack against Russia, using drones to target Russian warplanes. The Ukrainian authorities said they were planning for this for more than a year and a half.
Ukrainian President Folodimir Zelinski described it as a “great process.”
Meanwhile, Russia launched on Sunday that it launched the largest number of drones-472 in everything-in Ukraine since its full invasion in February 2022. This was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in civilian regions in Ukraine.
Low expectations
Amid the escalation in the fighting, it seemed unlikely to make the talks in Istanbul a lot of progress. 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.
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, as well as less than two hours, although both sides have agreed on the biggest swap of prisoners in the war so far, with hundreds of people liberating families on each side.
“If the Istanbul meeting does not bring anything, then this clearly means strong new sanctions, quickly against Russia,” said Zelenskyy.
“Russia is trying to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to achieve additional gains in the battlefield,” said the Washington -based Research Institute, based on Washington, on Sunday. 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.
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The official Russian response to Sunday’s attacks was silent, as the attack obtained a slim coverage on the state -controlled television. The Russia-1 TV channel spent more than a minute on Sunday evening, with a brief statement of the Ministry before the photos were transferred to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions.
Zelinski said that the setbacks for the Kremlin would help forcing them at the negotiating table, even while continuing a summer attack in the battlefield.
“Russia should feel what its losses mean. This is what will do towards diplomacy,” he said at a summit on Monday in Velnes, Lithuania, with leaders from the northern countries and countries in the East NATO wing.
“It is difficult to underestimate” the drone attack: an analyst
Ukraine has sometimes issued air bases hosting nuclear strategic bombers in Russia 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 the Russian strategic air authority” and revealed the large weaknesses in the military capabilities in Moscow, according to Philip Operation, a professor of strategic studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
“It is difficult to reduce it,” O’Brien wrote in an analysis.
Fifty exchanges on Monday
Violent fighting continued along the front line with a length of approximately 1000 km.
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 killed five people and wounded 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.
Vladimir Midinski, Putin’s advisor, is leading the Russian delegation in Istanbul, where Defense Minister Rostam Omrov is headed by the Ukrainian delegation.
Officials said that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Vian will head the talks, with officials from the Turkish Intelligence Agency.
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