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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks with Ukraine, even as both warring countries traded long-range drone attacks.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, during a visit to Belarus, Putin said Russian and Ukrainian officials are discussing the timing of a potential new meeting.

The Russian leader said that the terms of a potential ceasefire, which the Kremlin has so far effectively rejected, are expected to be on the agenda.

The war shows no signs of abating, as US-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthrough. Two recent rounds of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on settling.

Ukraine wants the next step in peace talks to be a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said.

However, the suggestion appears likely to be a non-starter, given Putin’s recent comments. The Russian leader has said a summit meeting should take place only after the main provisions of a peace deal have been agreed, something that could take months or years.

Putin has also repeated his claim that Zelenskyy lost his legitimacy after his presidential term expired last year—an allegation rejected by Kyiv and its allies.

Russia and Ukraine trade long-range drone attacks

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine.

Visitors watch damaged Russian drones during the International Conference on Expanding Sanctions Against Russia in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukats Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry

Ukrainian drones have pulled off some stunning feats. At the start of June, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged in a covert Ukrainian operation using cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory.

According to the Ukrainian air force, around 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed.

Ukraine halts Russian advance in Sumy

On Thursday, Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed Ukrainian forces halted Russia’s recent advance into the northeastern Sumy region and stabilised the front line near the Russian border.

General Syrskyi said the successful defence in the Sumy region has prevented Russia from redeploying around 50,000 troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other parts of the front line.

Ukraine is employing new countermeasures against Russia’s escalation of combined missile and drone attacks, officials say. Instead of relying on ground-based mobile teams to shoot down Shaheds, Ukraine is deploying interceptor drones it has developed.

Moscow has not yet commented on his claim. Before this, Russian forces had made slow, costly advances along parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, shelling the Sumy region with several attacks that killed civilians and destroyed buildings.

Ukrainian authorities say their outnumbered forces relied heavily on drones to hold back Russian troops, just as US-led international efforts to broker a ceasefire went on.

Those months-long talks have failed, with the only tangible result being the agreement to carry out a series of prisoner-of-war exchanges.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was ready to hold a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue had yet to be agreed.

Putin said there were big differences between the proposals submitted by the two sides at previous talks but expressed hope that continued dialogue would help narrow the gap.

Putin told reporters in Minsk that the two sides’ negotiators were in constant contact. Russia was ready to return the bodies of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers, he said.

(Reporting by Vladimir SoldatkinWriting by Maxim RodionovEditing by Mark Trevelyan)

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russias President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on educational and museum complexes via a videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on June 25, 2025. (AFP Photo)

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that Moscow is ready to participate in a third round of peace negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, expressing gratitude to Türkiye for providing the platform.

Speaking at a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, Putin said the exact date and time of the next meeting will be determined following the completion of prisoner exchanges agreed on June 2 in Türkiye.

“In general, we are ready for this (next round of talks), we need to coordinate the place and time. I hope that the president of the Republic of Türkiye, Mr. (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, remains in his position to support this process, and we are very grateful to him for this,” Putin stated.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends the 4th Eurasian Economic Forum at the Belexpo National Exhibition Centre in Minsk on June 26, 2025. (AFP Photo)

Peace negotiations to resume after prisoner exchanges

Putin emphasized that the upcoming round of negotiations depends on coordination between the two countries’ negotiation teams.

“We are ready to hold such a meeting in Istanbul. But when specifically, these are the group leaders from both sides, and they are in constant contact, they are now agreeing on the time of the meeting,” he said.

The Russian president confirmed that Moscow is prepared to return the remains of 3,000 additional Ukrainian soldiers as part of the ongoing humanitarian exchange process.

Experts are seen working during the repatriation of the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 26, 2025. (AA Photo)

Proposals from both sides ‘contradictory’

During the press briefing, Putin acknowledged significant differences in the proposals exchanged by Russia and Ukraine at earlier negotiation rounds. “As for the memorandums, as expected, nothing surprising happened… these are two absolutely contradictory memorandums,” he said.

Despite the discrepancies, Putin voiced hope that continued talks would help bridge the gaps between the two sides.

Putin comments on US relations and defense spending

Also during his remarks in Minsk, Putin expressed support for U.S. President Donald Trump, stating, “In general, thanks to President Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out in some ways.”

He said he respected Trump and that a meeting between the two would be “quite possible.” Putin also noted that Russia plans to reduce its military expenditures in the long term due to inflation pressures driven by current defense spending.

At the previous round of negotiations held in Istanbul on June 2, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement to exchange the remains of a total of 12,000 fallen soldiers. The continuation of these exchanges is a key precondition for scheduling the next diplomatic round.