The second round of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in just over two weeks did not end negatively, according to a Turkish official.
The talks – the second such direct contacts between the sides since 2022 – had already begun nearly two hours later than scheduled, with no explanation of the delay.
State news agency TASS and the Interfax agency cited their own sources as saying the talks were over and that there were no plans to continue the talks later in the day.
The talks were intended to discuss ways out of Russia's three-year war against Ukraine, but the two sides were apparently far apart going into the negotiations.
Kyiv had demanded an unconditional cease-fire as a first step; Moscow had a cease-fire on conditions that included Western states refraining from supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Ukrainian delegates handed over to Russian negotiators a list of children Kyiv wants Moscow to return to Ukraine, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said after the meeting.
"The eyes of the whole world are focused on the contacts here," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Russian and Ukrainian delegations as they faced off against each other on opposite sides of the room in the sumptuous Çırağan Palace by the Bosphorus.
"We believe that you will achieve concrete results that will bring us one step closer to peace," Fidan added.
He said the aim of the meeting was to evaluate the cease-fire, to discuss a possible meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, and to look at more prisoner exchange opportunities.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in Lithuania, later said the two sides were preparing a new exchange of prisoners of war.
His chief of staff also said the Ukrainian delegation had handed over a list of deported children to Russia during Monday's talks that Ukraine wants returned home.
Ukrainian officials say hundreds of children were forcibly removed from Ukrainian territory by Russian forces, and they want them returned as part of a peace deal. Moscow says the children were moved to protect them from fighting.
No other details about Monday's talks were immediately available.
The talks were intended to discuss ways out of Russia's three-year war against Ukraine, but the two sides were apparently far apart going into the negotiations.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Moscow's delegation, said that Russia had received Ukraine's draft memorandum for a peace accord ahead of the talks.
Russia had said it would present its draft peace accord at the talks and a cease-fire proposal. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was heading his country's delegation. Several members of his delegation wore combat fatigues.
The last round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul on May 16 yielded the biggest prisoner swap of the war, with each side freeing 1,000 prisoners, but no sign of peace or a cease-fire, as they merely stated their opening negotiating positions, which were far apart.
Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war.
Fierce fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other's territory with deep strikes.
On Sunday, a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep inside Russia, Ukraine's Security Service said, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones.
Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday.
Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.
Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, including one that hit near a school, the city's mayor said.
One missile landed near an apartment building, while the second struck a road near the school, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement, and published a photo of a wide crater.
"Standing next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been," Terekhov wrote. "A few more meters – and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes – and cars, buses would have been on the road."
No casualties were reported.
