Russia's new ambassador to Washington gave an explosive interview to 'TASS' new agency. Alexander Darchiev said Russia & U.S. have agreed to hold future bilateral talks in Moscow. Talks on removing "irritants" in bilateral ties will be moved from Istanbul,

Ukrainian and Russian delegations met again in Istanbul on Monday to take part in the next round of U.S.-brokered peace talks.

Since last sitting down with Ukraine to talk peace, Russia has launched four of its five largest drone attacks against the country, killed more than 340 of its civilians and continued to peddle its false narrative about the unprovoked war it has been waging for more than a decade.

It restated Moscow's demands that Ukraine become a neutral country - ruling out membership of NATO - and that it protect the rights of Russian speakers, make Russian an official language and enact a legal ban on glorification of Nazism. Ukraine rejects the Nazi charge as absurd and denies discriminating against Russian speakers.

Ukraine reviews Russia's ceasefire terms after failed talks. Zelenskyy emphasizes no rewards for Putin and highlights NATO's importance in curbing Russian aggression.

Ukraine’s security service released footage Wednesday of its attack on Russian war planes at multiple airbases across the country. In the span of a few hours on Sunday, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russian and Ukrainian delegates met in Istanbul on Monday for their second set of direct peace talks, a day after Kyiv launched a shock drone attack on Russia’s nuclear-capable bombers, in an operation that President Volodymyr Zelensky said was a year and a half in the making.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of peace talks on Monday.

Russian negotiators told the Ukrainian delegation directly that their so-called "peace memorandum" is an ultimatum Kyiv cannot accept, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Hungarian news outlet Valasz Online published on June 10.

It was already hard to imagine a breakthrough emerging from the direct talks between Russia and Ukraine set to be renewed in Istanbul on Monday.