Russia and Ukraine have agreed to give each other lists of people they want included in a planned prisoner of war swap, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
Negotiators for the two countries wrapped up their latest direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, a day after Kyiv staged one of its boldest aerial attacks inside Russia, destroying long-range bombers and other aircraft.
The negotiations concluded after just over an hour, according to Mr Zelenskiy and Russian state media.
The Ukrainian leader told an online news briefing that negotiators for Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200 POWs.
He said there was also agreement to return the remains of killed service personnel, but this would take careful preparation.
Mr Zelenskiy also said Ukrainian negotiators gave their Russian counterparts a list of nearly 400 children it wanted Russia to return home to Ukraine, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
Ukrainian defense minister Rustem Umerov led his country’s delegation to the talks on Monday opposite Russia’s negotiators headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
Russian state media reported that Mr Medinsky’s team handed Ukraine two proposed options for a ceasefire.
RIA news agency said the first would require Ukraine to commence a complete withdrawal of all its forces from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own territory.
The second option would be a “package” deal containing a number of conditions, RIA said.
The meeting in Istanbul marks only the second time the two warring sides have held public negotiations since the early days of the conflict and follows a first round of talks in May.
It came after a string of major attacks over the weekend.
Russia launched deadly attacks across Ukraine before the Istanbul talks. Russian shelling and air attacks killed five people outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, while a drone attack on the northeast region of Sumy injured at least six people early on Monday, including two children, officials said.
The Kremlin launched 472 drones at Ukraine, Ukraine’s air force said, the highest nightly total of the war.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and other military bases.
A Ukrainian intelligence official said 40 Russian warplanes were struck in a “large-scale” drone attack.
On Monday Mr Zelenskiy referred to the Ukrainian intelligence operation, codenamed “Spider’s Web”, in which drones smuggled inside wooden sheds attacked Russian military airfields. He said the operation helped to restore partners’ confidence that Ukraine can continue waging its war against Russia’s invasion.
Their first round of talks on May 16th yielded the biggest prisoner swap of the war but no sign of peace – or even a ceasefire as both sides merely set out their own opening negotiating positions.
Mr Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace, but so far they have not done so, and the White House has repeatedly warned the United States will “walk away” from the war if the two sides fail to reach a peace deal.
The idea of direct talks was first proposed by president Vladimir Putin after Ukraine and European powers demanded that he agree to a ceasefire, which the Kremlin dismissed.
In June last year, Mr Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul were to present to the Russian side a proposed roadmap for reaching a lasting peace settlement, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.
According to the document, there would be no restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength after a peace deal is struck, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow’s forces, and reparations for Ukraine.
The document also stated that the current location of the front line would be the starting point for negotiations about territory.
Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100sq/km, about the same size as the US state of Ohio.
Mr Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
The US says more than 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.
Mr Trump has called the Russian leader “crazy” and berated Mr Zelenskiy in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said that he thinks peace is achievable and that if Mr Putin delays then he could impose tough sanctions on Russia. – Agencies
