Ukraine, Russia agree another prisoner exchange, but no ceasefire

KYIV/ISTANBUL: Ukraine’s overnight drone attacks on Russia’s Kursk and Voronezh regions sparked residential fires and disrupted traffic on a major highway, regional officials said early on Monday.

Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 162 Ukrainian drones overnight, downing 57 of the air weapons over the Kursk region that borders Ukraine.Falling debris from destroyed drones in the Kursk region sparked fires at several houses and damaged private apartments, acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the Telegram messaging app.

In the southern Russian region of Voronezh, where Russian air units destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones, regional governor Alexander Gusev said drone debris cut through power lines which fell on the M-4, a major expressway.

A small section of the highway, which links the cities of Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, was closed, Gusev said. Falling drone debris also damaged the facade of several houses, he added on Telegram.

There were no injuries reported, the governors of the regions said.The attacks come as both Russia and Ukraine are about to meet for a round of peace talks, trying to find a way to end the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour more than three years ago.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia agreed another large-scale prisoner exchange at talks in Istanbul on Monday, but failed to make a breakthrough on an immediate halt to the fighting.

At the second round of direct talks between the warring sides, Ukraine said Moscow had rejected its call for an unconditional ceasefire, offering instead a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline.

Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, but have yet to make progress beyond prisoner exchanges and the agreement to swap their demands for a longer-term settlement.

Top negotiators from both sides confirmed they had reached a deal to swap all severely wounded soldiers as well as all captured fighters under the age of 25.“We agreed to exchange all-for-all seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war. The second category is young soldiers who are from 18 to 25 years old -- all-for-all,” Ukraine’s lead negotiator and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov told reporters in Istanbul.

Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said it would involve “at least 1,000” on each side -- topping the 1,000-for-1,000 POW exchange agreed at talks last month.But there was less sign of progress towards a truce.

“The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the talks.Russia said it had offered a limited pause in fighting.

“We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said, adding this was needed to collect bodies of dead soldiers from the battlefield.

The two sides also agreed to hand over the bodies of 6,000 killed soldiers, Ukraine said after the talks.But Russia’s Medinsky said Moscow would hand 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers over unilaterally, adding that he did not know “if they have any bodies on their side”, but that Russia would take them, if so.

Moscow does not disclose how many of its soldiers have been killed, closely guarding any information on the huge losses sustained during its three-year invasion.As talks concluded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any deal must not “reward” Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“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,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Vilnius alongside several NATO leaders.

Russia handed Ukraine a document outlining its demands for both a peace and a full ceasefire, officials from both countries said after the talks.Kyiv said it would study the proposals in the coming days.Ukraine’s Umerov also called for a next meeting to take place before the end of June, saying the teams should discuss a possible summit between Putin and Zelensky.

Opening the talks at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul -- an Ottoman imperial house on the banks of the Bosphorus that is now a luxury five-star hotel -- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the “eyes of the entire world” were watching.Afterwards, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed hosting a meeting between Zelensky, Putin and Trump.