Any lingering hopes US President Donald Trump may have entertained of bringing the Ukraine war to an early conclusion will have been dispelled by his latest phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.
Although fighting continues, hopes had steadily been building in Washington that a breakthrough might yet be possible in the Trump administration’s efforts to end the war with the resumption of peace talks in Istanbul earlier this week.
Even though expectations were low, with both sides still deeply divided on how to end a war that has been raging since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the fact that they were meeting face-to-face had offered hope.
Horns still locked
Although the talks—which lasted for about an hour—ended without a breakthrough, progress was made towards arranging a prisoner swap. The two sides committed to returning the bodies of 12,000 soldiers and agreed to exchange all sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war, plus all those aged under 25.
Ukrainian negotiators said Russia had again rejected an “unconditional ceasefire,” one of the key demands being made by Kyiv and its allies in Europe and the US. The Russian team said it had proposed a two- or three-day truce “in certain areas” of the vast frontline but gave no further details.
Key issues remain, including Russia’s continued occupation of 20% of Ukrainian territory, but had there been any serious momentum towards resolving them, this would have been undermined by the Ukrainians launching one of their most daring and deadly attacks against Russia on Sunday.
A spider’s web
Using smuggled drones piloted from Ukraine, Kyiv attacked four Russian airbases—including one located thousands of kilometres away—destroying or damaging around 40 Russian long-range bombers and Moscow’s all-important surveillance aircraft.
