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Trump 'open' to meeting Putin and Zelenskyy in Turkey, says White House
The White House said Donald Trump is “open” to an invitation by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to hold three-way peace talks in Turkey with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
As we reported earlier, the Turkish leader reiterated his willingness on Monday to host a meeting between Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Turkey would “take steps” to facilitate such a meeting, Erdoğan said, following direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul earlier on Monday.
Asked about Erdoğan’s proposal, the White House's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
The president has said he’s open to it if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together.
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Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said he has briefed his president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, following a second round of talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday.
Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said his side acted “clearly and consistently” and that one of the key points is an unconditional ceasefire for at least 30 days.
“This has been our principle — and the position of our partners — for many months,” he said.
He accused Russia of rejecting “even the very idea of halting the killing” and of stalling for time.
“Our documents were handed over in advance,” Umerov wrote.
But the Russian ‘memorandum’ was handed over only today — during the meeting itself. This created conditions that prevented the meeting from delivering the concrete results needed to end the war.
Trump 'open' to meeting Putin and Zelenskyy in Turkey, says White House
The White House said Donald Trump is “open” to an invitation by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to hold three-way peace talks in Turkey with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
As we reported earlier, the Turkish leader reiterated his willingness on Monday to host a meeting between Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Turkey would “take steps” to facilitate such a meeting, Erdoğan said, following direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul earlier on Monday.
Asked about Erdoğan’s proposal, the White House's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
The president has said he’s open to it if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, has accused the Russians of “doing everything they can to avoid a ceasefire and continue the war”.
In a post on social media, Yermak called for new sanctions against Russia, adding that “rationality is not something that applies to Russia”.
Ukraine and Russia to exchange lists for prisoner of war swap, says Zelenskyy
Ukraine and Russia agreed at talks in Istanbul on Monday that they will exchange lists of people next week that they want included in a planned prisoner of war swap, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president, during a news briefing, said Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200 PoWs.
There was also agreement to return the remains of killed service personnel, but this would take careful preparation, he added.
He added that Ukrainian negotiators gave their Russian counterparts a list of nearly 400 Ukrainian children that Kyiv wanted Moscow to return home, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
Russian negotiators have handed Ukraine two proposed options for a ceasefire, Russian state media said on Monday.
RIA news agency said the first would require Ukraine to commence a complete withdrawal of all its forces from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own territory.
The second option would be a “package” deal containing a number of conditions, RIA said.
The day so far
Ukraine has proposed to hold a 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 after today’s talks in Istanbul.
The Ukrainians agreed to return 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, he said, while providing the Russian side a list of Ukrainian children abducted to Russian territory during the war. “This matter is a fundamental priority for us: If Russia is genuinely committed to a peace process, the return of at least half the children on this list is positive,” Umerov said.
Russia rejected an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine at the talks in Istanbul, a Kyiv negotiator, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said. “The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Kyslytsya told reporters in a press conference after the talks.
Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said that Russia proposed a partial ceasefire of “two to three days” at the talks in Istanbul. “We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, “so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers”. We have not heard what the Ukrainian position on this specific, short ceasefire is yet.
Turkey will take steps to bring together the leaders of Russia and Ukraine for talks in either the capital Ankara or in Istanbul, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. “My desire is to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara. Also to invite Trump to this meeting as well... We will take steps for this meeting after the latest talks,” Erdogan said, speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Nordic, Baltic and central European Nato members are committed to Ukrainian membership of the military alliance, the leaders of Poland, Romania and Lithuania said in a joint statement after a summit of the B9 and Nordic countries on Monday, Reuters reports.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz will push for a “fair ceasefire” in Ukraine during his first in-person meeting with Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, according to a German government spokesperson. Merz, who was confirmed as chancellor after a shaky start last month, has promised to put staunch support of Ukraine at the heart of his government amid persistent concerns over US security commitments to Europe.
Ukraine said on Sunday it had destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars as far away as Siberia, in its longest-range assault of the war. In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it had damaged $7bn worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres (miles) away, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke. A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) said the strikes hit 41 planes that were used to “bomb Ukrainian villages”.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s centre for countering disinformation, has said in a Telegram post that Ukraine destroyed at least 13 planes during the drone attack on Russian airbases yesterday, adding that other military planes were damaged.
Ruth Michaelson
Russian officials held a competing press conference in the grounds of the Çırağan palace while the Ukrainian delegation was still talking, in a fitting conclusion to a day of talks that frequently saw Ukrainian and Russian diplomats attempting to marshal crowds of journalists as the brief negotiations wrapped up, with Ukrainian diplomats reluctant to admit Russian media to their briefing.
Chief Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told journalists that Moscow delivered a memorandum to the Ukrainian side which includes “steps towards a full ceasefire.” In the interim, Moscow suggested “a ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas,” he added, without specifying which areas he was referring to.
The Ukrainian side has repeatedly said that major issues can only be solved with a ceasefire in place first, or in the words of foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, “the diplomats can speak when the guns are silent.” The Ukrainian side repeatedly declined to comment on the contents of Russia’s memorandum when speaking to journalists, saying they were presented with the document for the first time during today’s meeting and that their side would have to study it first before providing any form of response.
Kyiv has repeatedly questioned whether Moscow is serious about negotiations, and the results of talks today suggested progress in the same areas as several weeks ago, namely an exchange of prisoners of war, rather than the substantive talks to end the fighting that the Ukrainians say they are ready to engage in.
Medinsky said that Moscow will hand over 6000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers next week, part of an exchange that will also see Kyiv deliver the same number of bodies of fallen Russian soldiers.
The chief Russian negotiator said that a separate exchange of prisoners of war will involve “no less than 1000 soldiers from our side,” while the Ukrainians said their focus was on categories of detainees, namely soldiers aged 18-25 and severely wounded prisoners, declining to name a specific number to be exchanged. Medinsky confirmed this, adding that “all,” sick and wounded prisoners will be swapped.
One key talking point that emerged during today’s negotiations was Ukraine handing Russia a list of “several hundred,” children that Kyiv wants returned from Russia according to Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov. These abductions were the subject of an international criminal court arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin as well as other Russian officials.
Medinsky acknowledged the Ukrainians’ demand in his comments to journalists, saying that Ukraine handed Russian negotiators a list “that contains 339 names,” to be returned, without commenting further.
Russia rejected an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine at the talks in Istanbul, Kyiv negotiator Sergiy Kyslytsya says.
Moscow has consistently rejected extended ceasefire proposals, arguing they would give Ukraine time to rearm and regroup at a time Russian forces are making battlefield advances.
Ukraine has proposed a further round of talks with Russia before the end of June.
Turkey will take steps to bring together the leaders of Russia and Ukraine for talks in either the capital Ankara or in Istanbul, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
“My desire is to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara. Also to invite Trump to this meeting as well... We will take steps for this meeting after the latest talks,” Erdogan said, speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Russia offered Ukraine partial '2-3 day' ceasefire, Moscow's top negotiator says
We reported in an earlier post that Ukraine said that during the talks this afternoon Russia rejected its offer of an unconditional ceasefire, as Moscow has done in the past.
Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has now said that Russia proposed a partial ceasefire of “two to three days” at the talks in Istanbul.
“We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, “so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers”. We have not heard what the Ukrainian position on this specific, short ceasefire is yet.
Ruth Michaelson
The Ukrainian side said little about how a wide-ranging drone strike on targets over 2500 miles from their territory impact negotiations today.
In response to questions on the subject, foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said:
The key thing is that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is defending itself – Ukraine only targets legitimate military targets inside Russia, legitimate military targets, and international law allows us to do this.
Umerov added that the Ukrainian side would take the documents provided by the Russians in order to study them in the coming week, prior to a third meeting of their delegations at the end of this month.
However, he added, “we believe that all the key issues can only be solved at the level of leaders …with the possible involvement of other leaders such as the president of the United States.”
Tykhyi added:
If Putin says he is ready to meet tomorrow, our president Zelenskyy is ready to meet him tomorrow.
Ukraine agreed to return 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers – defence minister
Ruth Michaelson
Ruth Michaelson is reporting from Istanbul
Today’s talks concluded after less than two hours, even less than the limited talks a few weeks ago.
Ukrainian defence minister and lead negotiator Rustem Umerov left the Çırağan palace to briefly speak to the media gathered outside, telling reporters that the talks have produced a second exchange of prisoners of war, this time focusing on the severely injured and young people.
In a longer press conference inside the palace, Umerov said his team came with three agenda items, primarily a ceasefire.
We are insisting on a full and unconditional end to the killing now: An unconditional ceasefire, meaning air, sea and land for at least 30 days. This demand has been unchanged for three months and we consider it the basis of a peaceful resolution.
The second point is the release of “all prisoners and all abducted children,” Umerov said. This would be an “all for all” exchange rather than focusing on numbers, meaning all seriously wounded and sick prisoners of war, as well as an exchange of all soldiers aged 18-25.
The Ukrainians agreed to return 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, he said, while providing the Russian side a list of Ukrainian children abducted to Russian territory during the war.
“This matter is a fundamental priority for us: If Russia is genuinely committed to a peace process, the return of at least half the children on this list is positive,” Umerov said.
Umerov and deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya both complained that their team had only received a Russian memo outlining their demands for an end to the war during the meeting, rather than beforehand as they demanded.
“We could not react to the Russian proposals as they were literally only advanced during the meeting. Nevertheless we manage to construct our conversation in a way that we can have a tangible humanitarian outcome,” Kyslytsya said.
“The Russian side continues to reject the notion of an unconditional ceasefire, the same one the president of the United States offered a while ago...the same unconditional ceasefire our delegation has offered once again.”
Ukraine proposes next round of Russia talks before end of June
Ukraine has proposed to hold a 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 after today’s talks in Istanbul.
He added that the delegations should try to agree a meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy last month challenged Putin to meet him personally in Istanbul after the Russian president rejected a demand from Ukraine and European allies to sign up to a 30-day ceasefire.
Putin didn’t turn up. Russia’s delegation was instead headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led today’s talks for Moscow.
Russia rejected offer of unconditional ceasefire at talks – Ukrainian negotiator
Russia rejected an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine at the talks in Istanbul, a Kyiv negotiator, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said.
“The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Kyslytsya told reporters in a press conference after the talks.
Moscow has consistently rejected extended ceasefire proposals, arguing they would give Ukraine time to rearm and regroup at a time Russian forces are making battlefield advances.
Prisoner of war exchange will focus on the seriously injured and young soldiers – Ukraine
We mentioned in an earlier post that Kyiv expects more prisoners of war will be exchanged with Russia after talks concluded with Moscow in Istanbul.
Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said the sides agreed an exchange of prisoners that would focus on swapping the severely injured and the young.
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Umerov said the remains of dead soldiers would also be repatriated as part of the exchange, according to Reuters. He also said there was discussion about a potential meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, possibly also involving Donald Trump at the end of June.
As a reminder, at the end of last month Ukraine and Russia completed a “1,000 for 1,000” prisoner swap after three days of exchanges – the biggest total swap of the war. This exchange was agreed in the previous talks in Istanbul held in May.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda spoke just before Volodymyr Zelenskyy did.
Nausea said Lithuania will be spending 4% of GDP on defence this year and more than 5% from the next year to 2030. He says he believes allies will be ready to “substantially increase” defence spending amid concerns about Russian aggression spreading beyond Ukraine.
The Lithuanian president said he expects a recommitment to collective defence at the Nato summit taking place in the Netherlands at the end of the month.
“At the Hague summit we expect a message of transatlantic unity, reaffirmed commitment to collective defence and readiness to defend the allied territory,” he said.
The current Nato spending target on defence is of at least 2% of GDP, but the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, has indicated that new benchmark of 5% will be announced soon.
Zelenskyy: Putin can't be allowed to decide who can join Nato as this will only allow his 'appetite for war to grow'
Here is a summary of what else Zelenskyy said during his address in Vilnius after a summit in the Lithuanian capital:
He said sanctions against Russia are “necessary”, adding it is important to “seriously limit” Russia’s oil trade and Moscow’s use of tankers.
“Without pressure Putin will just keep playing games with everyone who wants this war to end,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskyy says he expects more prisoners of war to be freed.
“The key to lasting peace is clear: the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression. Any reward would only show him that war pays off.”
If Putin decides who can and cannot join Nato, then Russia’s “appetite for war” will only grow, Zelenskyy said, adding that the goal should be to completely end “Russia’s hunger for aggression”.
Second round of talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul have concluded - reports
We are seeing reports from the newswires that the talks between Russia and Ukraine have concluded barely an hour after they began. We were expecting them to continue for much longer.
The two sides had been expected to discuss their ideas for what a full ceasefire and a longer term path to peace should look like amid pressure from Donald Trump, who has said the US could abandon its role as a mediator if there is no progress.
Zelenskyy calls for 'a new level of sanctions' on Russia if Istanbul talks fail
While so-called peace talks have been underway in Turkey, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius following a summit.
He has said more sanctions on Moscow could deter further Russian aggression and bring the two sides closer to peace.
Zelenksyy said there must be “a new level of pressure, new sanctions - and not just from Europe” should today’s talks in Istanbul fail.
“Without pressure, Putin will just keep playing games,” the Ukrainian president said, adding that Ukraine’s allies must “act in unity”. He calls for joint sanctions “at the G7 level,” including from Washington.
