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 Erdogan, 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.
Key events
Summary of the day so far
It’s 10pm in Kyiv and Moscow. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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Russian and Ukrainian representatives met for a second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, but with little progress toward ending the war. Delegations met for barely an hour and agreed to exchange more prisoners of war and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers.
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Russia presented terms during the negotiations that highlighted its refusal to compromise on its longstanding war goals. A text of Moscow’s memorandum, published by Russian state media, said a settlement would require international recognition of Crimea and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory, as well as the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces. It also ruled out Ukrainian membership of Nato and demanded recognising Russian as the country’s official language.
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Russia’s memorandum presented two options that both appeared to be non-starters for Ukraine. Option one: for Ukraine to start a full military withdrawal from the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Option two: Ukraine to cease military redeployments and accept a halt to foreign provision of military aid, satellite communications and intelligence. Kyiv would also have to lift martial law and hold presidential and parliamentary elections within 100 days.
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Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said officials would need a week to review Russia’s memorandum and decide on a response. Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv was proposing further talks sometime between 20 and 30 June, but he added that Kyiv believes only a meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin can resolve the many issues of contention.
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Umerov said the “only real progress” from the talks was reaching an agreement on releasing prisoners. The delegations agreed to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action and to set up a commission to exchange seriously wounded troops. Zelenskiy said Ukraine presented a list of 400 children it says have been abducted to Russia, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
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Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow proposed a partial ceasefire of “two to three days” at the talks in Istanbul. He told reporters that the proposed ceasefire would apply to certain areas of the front line to allow commanders to collect the bodies of their soldiers. It comes after Ukraine said Russia rejected its offer of an unconditional ceasefire.
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Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he hoped to bring together the Russian and Ukrainian leaders for a meeting with Donald Trump. The White House said Trump was “open” to an invitation by the Turkish leader, but that he “wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together.”
Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem umerov said the “only real progress” from talks with the Russian delegation in Istanbul on Monday was reaching an agreement on releasing prisoners.
In a post on social media, Umerov wrote:
We have reached agreements on:
– an “all-for-all” exchange of all severely wounded and seriously ill;
– an “all-for-all” exchange of all soldiers aged 18–25;
– the return of fallen soldiers’ bodies — 6,000 for 6,000.
He said the Ukrainian side also handed over a list of abducted Ukrainian children, adding:
Even a partial return would be a humanitarian step — if Russia is genuinely interested in moving toward peace.
Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem umerov said he has briefed his president, Volodymyr Zelenskyyfollowing 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 Erdogan, 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
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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.
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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.
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Russia rejected an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine at the talks in Istanbul, a Kyiv negotiator, Sergiy Kyslytsyasaid. “The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Kyslytsya told reporters in a press conference after the talks.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 monthhas promised to put staunch support of Ukraine at the heart of his government amid persistent concerns over US security commitments to Europe.
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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”.
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Andriy Kovalenkothe 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.
