Ukraine and Russia meet in Turkey for peace talks with few hopes for a breakthrough

ISTANBUL -- Delegations from Russia and Ukraine gathered 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 on ending the three-year war.

The Ukrainian delegation led Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was in Istanbul for the meeting, according to Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said in a message posted on the Ukrainian Embassy Whatsapp group. The Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, arrived Sunday evening, Russian state media reported.

Turkish officials said the meeting would start at 1 p.m. local time, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan presiding over the talks and officials from the Turkish intelligence agency also present.

However, Ukrainian spokesperson Tykhyi said the start would be at midday local time. It was not immediately possible to clarify the discrepancy.

Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war. Fierce fighting has in the meantime continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other’s territory with deep strikes.

On Sunday, a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s Security Service said, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones.

Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday.

Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.

Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, including one that hit near a school, the city’s mayor said.

One missile landed near an apartment building, while the second struck a road near the school, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement and published a photo of a wide crater.

“Standing next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been,” Terekhov wrote. “A few more meters — and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes — and cars, buses would have been on the road.”

No casualties were reported.

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Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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