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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday dismissed Russia’s ceasefire proposal as “an ultimatum” and renewed his call for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock over the war,