Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv and Moscow working on new prisoner exchange after talks last less than an hour
The second round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended barely an hour after they began in Istanbul.
The talks – the second such direct contacts between the sides since 2022 – had already begun nearly two hours later than scheduled with no explanation of the delay.
The mood in Russia was angry as the talks kicked off, with influential war bloggers calling on Moscow to deliver a fearsome retaliatory blow against Kyiv after Ukraine launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and elsewhere.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Lithuania, later said the two sides were preparing a new exchange of prisoners of war.
His chief of staff also said the Ukrainian delegation had handed over a list of deported children to Russia during Monday’s talks that Ukraine wants returned home.
The first round of talks on 16 May yielded the biggest prisoner swap of the war but no sign of peace – or even a ceasefire as both sides merely set out their opening negotiating positions.
