Istanbul Talks: Russia Rejects Unconditional Ceasefire
NEW DELHI, June 2: Russia has rejected an unconditional ceasefire during peace talks with Ukraine held in Istanbul on Monday, official sources said.
In the backdrop of an escalating war, Ukrainian and Russian delegates held the second round of peace talks in Turkey, which lasted about an hour, reports claimed. “The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” a Ukrainian negotiator Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters in a press conference after the talks.
However, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said both countries were working on a fresh prisoner exchange, as decided during the talks. His chief of staff also stated that during Monday’s talks, the Ukrainian delegation presented Russia with a list of deported children whom Ukraine was seeking to have returned.
The second round of talks, hosted by Turkish officials, follows the initial negotiations on May 16, which lasted two hours and resulted in a large-scale prisoner exchange but made little headway toward ending the war.
After Kyiv’s claim that Russia rejected the proposal to draw an “unconditional ceasefire,” Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said Moscow proposed a limited ceasefire lasting “two to three days” during the talks in Istanbul. “We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, adding: “so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers.”
Ukraine has also suggested holding the next round of talks with Russia before the end of June. “We propose to the Russian side to hold a meeting by the end of this month, from 20th to 30th of June,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said following Monday’s talks in Istanbul. He also noted that the delegations should work towards arranging a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.
Notably, Zelensky last month challenged Putin to face him personally during Istanbul talks after the Russian president rejected a demand from Ukraine and European allies to agree for a 30-day ceasefire.
Tensions ran high in Russia as the talks began, with prominent war bloggers urging Moscow to deliver a powerful retaliatory strike against Kyiv. The calls followed one of Ukraine’s most daring attacks of the war on Sunday, which targeted Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and other locations.
According to reports, the strikes targeted bases in Russia’s Arctic, Siberia and Far East, over 7,000 kilometres from Ukraine. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, reacted to the drone operation by Kyiv and said, “Destruction of 40 Russian jets isn’t random. Russia keeps launching 500 drones and missiles at us—it’s only a matter of time before things start shifting on their end.”
The estimated cost of the damage exceeds USD 2 billion, making it one of the most expensive single attacks on Russia’s air assets since the war began, she claimed on X. The Ukrainian President called the operation “brilliant,” adding that such setbacks would push Russia toward diplomacy and peace.
(Manas Dasgupta)
