 "Ukraine proposes next round of talks by June end as Russia rejects unconditional ceasefire")
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov on Monday said that Ukraine has proposed holding the next round of peace talks with Russia between June 20 and 30, despite Moscow rejecting Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire during the Istanbul talks.
According to The Guardian report_,_ citing Russian state media, Russian negotiators have handed Ukraine two proposed options for a ceasefire.
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, added the report, citing RIA.
“The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Kyiv negotiator Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters in a press conference after the talks.
Instead, Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky suggested a limited ceasefire lasting “two to three days” in select frontline areas to allow for the recovery of soldiers’ bodies.
Ukraine has yet to respond to the proposal.
“We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” The Guardian quoted Medinsky as saying, “so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers”.
During the talks, Ukraine and Russia agreed to give each other next week lists of people they want included in a planned prisoner of war swap, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
According to Reuters, Zelenskyy told an online news briefing that negotiators for Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200 POWs.
He said there was also agreement to return the remains of killed service personnel, but this would take careful preparation.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian negotiators gave their Russian counterparts a list of nearly 400 children it wanted Russia to return home to Ukraine, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsZelensky also urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to approve more sanctions to “push” Russia into a full ceasefire.
“We really expect Trump to take strong steps,” AFP quoted him as saying at a briefing with journalists, calling for Washington to “push the Russians to the ceasefire with strong sanctions”.
Meanwhile, the White House on Monday said that President Trump is open to an invitation by his Turkish counterpart to hold three-way peace talks in Turkey with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
“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,” AFP quoted Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying when asked about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal.
The Istanbul talks came a day after Ukraine said it had destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars as far away as Siberia, marking its longest-range attack of the war.
Ukraine claimed to have damaged $7 billion worth of Russian aircraft at four airbases thousands of kilometers away, releasing unverified videos showing planes engulfed in flames and thick black smoke.
A source from Ukraine’s security services (SBU) said the strikes targeted 41 planes used to “bomb Ukrainian villages.”
With inputs from agencies
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