After yesterday’s attack on Russian military airports, the second round of interviews took place today in Istanbul. New “no” of Moscow to cease fire without condition. A new exchange of prisoners will be organized.
After the complex “cobweb” operation carried out yesterday by the Ukrainian secret services, which saw Droni FPV Ukrainians controlled at a distance destroyed several strategic bombers in two Russian airports, today in Istanbul the second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine has been held in Istanbul.
How the talks went
The meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian delegation, which took place in the Ciragan palace, on the Bosphorus, lasted just an hour, in the presence of some exponents of the Turkish administration, including the Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Just the latter opened the session, underlining that “the eyes around the world are focused on these contacts”. According to Fidan, the objective of the meeting was to evaluate the conditions for a ceased fire, to discuss a possible meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian president, and to examine further opportunities for the exchange of prisoners.
Just about the latter theme, speaking from Vilnius (in Lithuania), Zelensky has made it known that he followed talks was decided to carry on another exchange of prisoners between the parties. Writing on Telegram, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andriy Yermakmade it known that Ukraine “officially delivered a list of Ukrainian children to repatriate the Russian part”.
In addition to this, today the Russian delegation, led by Vladimir Medinskydelivered to Ukrainian negotiators, led by the Minister of Defense Rustm UMEROVthe Moscow version of the Memorandum to reach a peace agreement. In recent days the details of the Ukrainian Memorandum had been published. The proposal began with a ceased fire of at least 30 days, followed by the return of all the prisoners held by each part and of the Ukrainian children brought to Russian territory, and therefore by a meeting between the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Among the clauses requested by Kiev there was also the allocation of allied soldiers in Ukraine and the refusal for the imposition of any limit to the size of the Ukrainian armed forces
After the talks, the Ukrainian Defense Minister issued a short statement to the press, where he confirmed the work for a new exchange of prisoners and announced that Russia refused both to join a ceased the fire without condition and to organize a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. The exchange of prisoners that will be organized will also include all serious injuries and the minor soldiers of 25 years of age. Umbov always said that the Ukrainian delegation has proposed to keep new interviews between 20 and 30 June.
“Capping” operation, the attack on Russian military airports
Today’s talks took place in the shade of the incredible operation carried out yesterday by the Ukrainian secret services against the Russian aviation. Comparisons with Pearl Harbour have already been made by many parts. Although yesterday’s attack is not even remotely comparable to the blitz made by the Japanese imperial forces against the base of the American Pacific fleet on December 7, 1941, nevertheless, for the audacity of the attack and the surprise effect on the opponent, the comparison remains fitting.
To organize the operation, for more than a year, was it SbuUkraine security service. The FPV drones used in the attack would have been assembled in Russia, in a warehouse in the city of Chelyabinsk, placed in specially prepared containers, with retractable roof, and therefore loaded by different trucks, whose unsuspecting drivers transported the drones near the air bases.
In the “Day After” it is already possible to evaluate the results. Let’s start with these, there were 4 airports attached: Olenyain the Mumansk region, Belayain the Siberian region of Irkutsk, Dyiagilevo Near the city of Ryazan e Ivanovoin the homonymous region. The satellite images published today highlight the probable destruction of 7 planes in the Belaya basein Siberia, four strategic Tu-95ms and three Tu-22m3 bombers. As regards attacks in Olenya, in the Mumansk region, here the only visual sources available are the videos of the FPV drones published by the Ukrainian secret services themselves, from which The destruction of four Tu-95 and an An-12 transport plane can be deduced5 planes in total.
As for the other two airports attached, it seems that here the Russian air defense and electronic war systems have rejected the attack. Instead, the doubt remains if a video circulated yesterday on multiple portals, recorded near the military airport of Ukrainkain the region of the Far East Russian, was connected to the “Capping” operation. It would seem to be, given the open roof of the containers transported via truck and the explosion recorded a few seconds later.
With the data currently available 12 planes are destroyed, including 11 bombers. A huge figure for a single attack, but still much lower than the figure of 40 bombers released by Kiev’s secret services in the hours following the historic “cobweb” operation.
