Ukraine and Russia agree to a prisoner swap — but made little headway beyond that

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Monday’s second round of direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia as “very, very momentous”.

He confirmed that both sides had agreed to exchange over a thousand prisoners of war along with a “highly significant number” of bodies of soldiers killed in action.

Monday’s discussion lasted only slightly more than an hour and produced no major progress toward ending the 3-year-old war, officials said.

Nevertheless, Erdogan said his greatest wish now was to bring the Russian and Ukrainian leaders together for a meeting that could also include US President Donald Trump.

“The fact that the meeting took place despite yesterday’s incident is an important success in itself,” he added, in a televised speech.

The talks unfolded a day after a string of stunning long-range attacks by both sides, with Ukraine launching a devastating drone assault on Russian air bases and Russia hurling its largest drone attack of the war against Ukraine.

At the negotiating table, Russia presented a memo setting out the Kremlin’s terms for ending hostilities, the Ukrainian delegation said.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, told reporters Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response.

Ukraine proposed further talks on a date between June 20 and June 30, he said.

The memo was not made public.