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The delegations of Russia and Ukraine arrived in Turkey on Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress by finishing the three-year war after a series of astonishing attacks during the weekend.
Ukraine said on Sunday that it had launched a surprise attack on four Russian air bases thousands of kilometers, destroying more than 40 war planes. The raid was unprecedented in its scope and geographical scope, targeting the bases in the Arctic of Russia, Siberia and the Far East at more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) of Ukraine.
The head of the Ukrainian security service, Vasyl Maliuk, who led the planning of the operation, said that his success was “a major slap in front of the military power of Russia”. He said that drones hit three time zones simultaneously and that complex logistics took more than a year and a half to prepare.
Look at Ukraine deeply strikes in Russian territory in the attack on drones:
On the eve of a second cycle of peace talks, Ukraine launched what he calls his longest attack against Russia, using drones to target Russian war planes. Ukrainian authorities have said that they have been planning this for over a year and a half.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called this “brilliant operation”.
Meanwhile, Russia drew the greatest number of drones on Sunday – 472 in all – in Ukraine since its large -scale invasion in February 2022, said Ukraine Air Force, in an apparent effort to overwhelm the air defenses. It was part of a recently growing strike campaign in the civil regions of Ukraine.
Weak expectations
In the middle of the climbing of the fighting, the talks in Istanbul seemed little time to make a lot of progress. Efforts led by the United States to push both parties to accept a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted this stage, but the Kremlin actually rejected it.
High officials from the two countries have indicated that the two parties remain distant under key conditions to stop the war. The first round of talks, held on May 16, also in Istanbul, ended after less than two hours, although the two parties agreed on the greatest exchange of war prisoners, with hundreds of people freed from captivity on each side.
Zelenskyy said that “if Istanbul’s meeting does nothing, it clearly means that new strong sanctions are urgent and urgent” against Russia.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington -based reflection group, said on Sunday that “Russia is trying to delay negotiations and prolong the war in order to make additional gains on the battlefield”. The relentless fighting has frustrated the goal of US President Donald Trump to end the war quickly.
A week ago, he expressed his impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin while Moscow beat kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night.
Look at Ukraine deeply strikes in Russian territory in the attack on drones:
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The official Russian response to Sunday attacks was silent, the attack on the state controlled television. Russia-1’s television channel spent just over a minute on Sunday evening, with a brief press release from the Defense Ministry read before the images move to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions.
Zelenskyy said that the reverse for the Kremlin would help to force him to the negotiating table, even if he continues a summer offensive on the battlefield.
“Russia must feel what its losses mean. This is what will push it towards diplomacy,” he said at a summit on Monday in Vilnius, Lithuania, with leaders of the Nordic nations and countries on the eastern side of NATO.
Attack of “difficult to underestimate” drones: analyst
Ukraine has sometimes struck air bases welcoming nuclear strategic bombers from Russia since the start of the war, which prompted Russian Air Force to redeploy most of them in the regions more distant from the first line.
Because Sunday drones were launched from trucks close to the targeted bases in five Russian regions, the military defenses hardly had time to prepare.
Many Russian military bloggers have reprimanded the army for its inability to build protective shields for bombers despite the previous attacks, but the large size of the planes makes it a difficult task.
The attacks were “a blow for Russian strategic air power” and revealed significant vulnerabilities in Moscow’s military capacities, according to Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
“It is difficult to underestimate,” wrote O’Brien in an analysis.
Mortal exchanges Monday
Ferocious fights continued along the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers.
Russian forces bombed Ukraine southern Kherson, killing three people and injuring 19 others, including two children, regional officials announced on Monday.
In addition, a missile strike and a bombing in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed five people and injured nine others, officials said.
The Russian air defenses killed 162 Ukrainian drones in eight Russian regions overnight, as well as on the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, the Defense Ministry of Defense announced on Monday. The Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 of the 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, Ukrainian Air Force said.
Vladimir Medinsky, Putin advisor, heads the Russian delegation to Istanbul, the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, leading the Ukrainian delegation.
The officials said that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would chairs the talks, with officials of Turkish Intelligence Agency also present.
