In an operation said to be 18 months in the planning, Ukraine conducted a devastating series of drone strikes against Russia air bases on Sunday.

An aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Medinsky, claims he held a separate meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in Istanbul, TASS reports. "There was a meeting. It played an important role in preparing the general negotiation session,

The meeting, which was the second round of peace talks between the two countries, lasted about an hour. It took place against the backdrop of growing violence in the ongoing war.

Though the knock-on effects are unclear, some military commentators have called the strike Russia's "Pearl Harbor." Hopes for direct peace talks, which resumed Monday, remain low.

It also roughly tallies with attempts by Russian independent media, such as Meduza and Mediazona, to count the bodies. By this time last year, Meduza reckoned that between 106,000-140,000 Russian soldiers had died. Much of their analysis was based on inheritance records and obituaries on social media and in other outlets.

Vladimir Putin has remained silent for over a day following a series of incidents in Russia. First, in the Bryansk and Kursk regions, railway bridges were blown up. Then, Russian strategic air force bases were subjected to an unprecedented strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump is “open” to meeting his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Turkey, the White House said, after the two sides failed on Monday to make headway towards an elusive ceasefire.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned President Donald Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin was grabbing pieces of Ukraine all the way back in 2016.

Representatives of Russia and Ukraine met Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, but aside from agreeing to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops,