Russia, Ukraine holding talks in Turkiye after launching main assaults

Russian delegation, led by presidential adviser, Vladimir Medinsky, Chief of the Turkish Normal Workers, Metin Gurak, Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan, Turkiye’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, attend a gathering at Ciragan Palace on the day of the second spherical of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, in Istanbul, Turkiye, on June 2, 2025.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkiye on Monday (June 2, 2025) for the second spherical of direct peace talks in simply over two weeks, though expectations had been low for any important progress on ending the three-year struggle after a string of gorgeous assaults over the weekend.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, officers stated. Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian chief Vladimir Putin, headed the Kremlin workforce, Russian state media reported.

Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan chaired the talks on the metropolis’s Ciragan Palace and gave a gap speech to mark their begin.

Current feedback by senior officers in each nations point out they continue to be far aside on the important thing situations for stopping the struggle.

Ukraine stated Sunday (June 1, 2025) it launched a spectacular shock assault on 4 Russian airbases 1000’s of kilometres aside, destroying greater than 40 warplanes. The raid was unprecedented in its scope and geographic attain, concentrating on bases in Russia’s Arctic, Siberia and Far East greater than 7,000km from Ukraine.

The top of the Ukrainian safety service, Vasyl Maliuk, who led the planning of the operation, stated its success was “a significant slap within the face for Russia’s navy energy.” He stated the drones struck concurrently in three time zones and the advanced logistics took over a yr and a half to arrange.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy known as it a “good operation.”

In the meantime, Russia on Sunday (June 1, 2025) fired the largest variety of drones — 472 — at Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s air power stated, in an obvious effort to overwhelm air defences. That was a part of a not too long ago escalating marketing campaign of strikes in civilian areas of Ukraine.

U.S.-led efforts to push the 2 sides into accepting a ceasefire have to date failed. Ukraine accepted that step, however the Kremlin successfully rejected it.

The Institute for the Examine of Battle, a Washington-based assume tank, stated Sunday (June 1, 2025) that “Russia is making an attempt to delay negotiations and lengthen the struggle with the intention to make further battlefield positive factors.”

The relentless preventing has annoyed U.S. President Donald Trump’s objective of bringing a few fast finish to the struggle. Every week in the past, he expressed impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a 3rd straight night time. Trump stated on social media that Putin “has gone completely CRAZY!”

Senior officers in each nations have indicated the 2 sides stay far aside on the important thing situations for stopping the struggle.

The primary spherical of talks, held on Might 16, additionally in Istanbul, ended after lower than two hours. Whereas each side agreed on a big prisoner swap, there was no breakthrough.

Ukraine was triumphant after concentrating on distant Russian air bases. The official Russian response was muted, with the assault getting little protection on the state-controlled tv. Russia-1 TV channel on Sunday night spent for a bit over a minute on it with a quick Ministry of Defence’s assertion learn out earlier than photos shifted to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions.

Mr Zelenskyy stated the setbacks for the Kremlin would assist power it to the negotiating desk, at the same time as its pursues a summer time offensive on the battlefield.

“Russia should really feel what its losses imply. That’s what will push it towards diplomacy,” he stated at a summit Monday (June 1, 2025) in Vilnius, Lithuania with leaders from the Nordic nations and nations on NATO’s japanese flank.

Ukraine has sometimes struck air bases internet hosting Russia’s nuclear succesful strategic bombers since early within the struggle, prompting the Russian air power to redeploy most of them to the areas farther from the entrance line.

As a result of Sunday’s (Might 31, 2025) drones had been launched from vans near the bases focused in 5 Russian areas, navy defences had just about no time to arrange for them.

Many Russian navy bloggers chided the navy for its failure to construct protecting shields for the bombers regardless of earlier assaults however the giant dimension of the planes makes {that a} difficult process.

The assaults had been “an enormous blow to Russian strategic airpower” and uncovered important vulnerabilities in Moscow’s navy capabilities, in accordance with Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic research on the College of St. Andrews in Scotland.

“That is arduous to underestimate,” Mr O’Brien wrote in an evaluation.

Mr Zelenskyy stated that “if the Istanbul assembly brings nothing, that clearly means robust new sanctions are urgently, urgently wanted” towards Russia.

Worldwide considerations concerning the struggle’s penalties, in addition to commerce tensions, drove Asian share costs decrease Monday (June 2, 2025) whereas oil costs surged.

Fierce preventing has continued alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer entrance line, and each side have hit one another’s territory with deep strikes.

Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s southern Kherson area, killing three individuals and injuring 19 others, together with two youngsters, regional officers stated Monday (June 2, 2025).

Additionally, a missile strike and shelling across the southern metropolis of Zaporizhzhia, killing 5 individuals and injured 9 others, officers stated.

Russian air defences downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian areas in a single day, in addition to over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia’s Defence Ministry stated Monday (June 2, 2025).

Ukrainian air defences broken 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia in a single day, the Ukrainian air power stated.