Russia and Ukraine Reach Deal on New POW Swap and Handover of Bodies

Members of Ukrainian (R), Russian (L) and Turkish (C) delegations attend the second meeting at the Ciragan Palace, in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
Members of Ukrainian (R), Russian (L) and Turkish (C) delegations attend the second meeting at the Ciragan Palace, in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
TT

Russia and Ukraine Reach Deal on New POW Swap and Handover of Bodies

Members of Ukrainian (R), Russian (L) and Turkish (C) delegations attend the second meeting at the Ciragan Palace, in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)
Members of Ukrainian (R), Russian (L) and Turkish (C) delegations attend the second meeting at the Ciragan Palace, in Istanbul, on June 2, 2025. (AFP)

Russia and Ukraine said they had agreed at peace talks on Monday to exchange more prisoners of war and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers. 

The warring sides met for barely an hour in the Turkish city of Istanbul, for only the second such round of negotiations since March 2022. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described it as a great meeting and said he hoped to bring together Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a meeting in Türkiye with US President Donald Trump. 

But there was no breakthrough on a proposed ceasefire that Ukraine, its European allies and Washington have all urged Russia to accept. 

Moscow says it seeks a long-term settlement, not a pause in the war; Kyiv says Putin is not interested in peace. 

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said Russian negotiators had handed their Ukrainian counterparts a detailed memorandum outlining Moscow's terms for a full ceasefire. 

Medinsky, who heads the Russian team, said Moscow had also suggested a "specific ceasefire of two to three days in certain sections of the front" so that the bodies of dead soldiers could be collected. 

Each side said it would hand over the bodies of 6,000 dead soldiers to the other. 

In addition, they said they would conduct a further big swap of prisoners of war, after 1,000 captives on each side were traded following a first round of talks in Istanbul on May 15. 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed Kyiv's delegation, said the new exchange would focus on those severely injured in the war and on young people. 

Umerov also said that Moscow had handed a draft peace accord to Ukraine and that Kyiv, which has drawn up its own version, would review the Russian document. 

Ukraine has proposed holding more talks before the end of June, but believes that only a meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin can resolve the many issues of contention, Umerov said. 

Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Kyiv's delegation had requested the return of a list of children who it said had been deported to Russia. 

Moscow says such children were moved in order to protect them from fighting. Medinsky said there were 339 names on Ukraine's list but that the children had been "saved", not stolen. 

LOW EXPECTATIONS FOR ISTANBUL BREAKTHROUGH 

Ukraine had a day earlier launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, using drones to target Russian nuclear-capable long-range bomber planes in Siberia and elsewhere. 

Angry war bloggers urged Moscow to retaliate strongly. 

While both countries, for different reasons, are keen to keep Trump engaged in the peace process, expectations of a breakthrough on Monday had been low. 

Ukraine regards Russia's approach to date as an attempt to force it to capitulate - something Kyiv says it will never do - while Moscow, which advanced on the battlefield in May at its fastest rate in six months, says Kyiv should submit to peace on Russian terms or face losing more territory. 

Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war last June: Ukraine must drop its ambitions to join the Western NATO alliance and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions claimed and largely controlled by Russia. 

According to a proposed roadmap drawn up by Ukraine, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Kyiv wants no restrictions on its military strength after any peace deal, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow's forces, and reparations. 

Russia currently controls just under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 sq km, about the area of the US state of Ohio. 

Putin sent his army into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. 

The United States, which under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden was Ukraine's main source of advanced weaponry in the war, says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the conflict since 2022. 

Trump has called Putin "crazy" and berated Zelenskiy in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said he thinks peace is achievable and that if Putin delays, the US could impose tough sanctions on Russia. 



China Successfully Tests Sea-based Rocket Booster Recovery System

FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver looks at this phone as he rests on his electric bike in Beijing, China January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver looks at this phone as he rests on his electric bike in Beijing, China January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
TT

China Successfully Tests Sea-based Rocket Booster Recovery System

FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver looks at this phone as he rests on his electric bike in Beijing, China January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
FILE PHOTO: A delivery driver looks at this phone as he rests on his electric bike in Beijing, China January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

China on Friday successfully tested an experimental rocket retrieval system using a net attached to a sea platform, state media reported, in the hopes of breaking ⁠US dominance in ⁠reusable rockets.

The Long March 10B rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial ⁠space launch site in southern China and, about six minutes after separation of its booster and upper stage, the booster returned vertically and was recovered on ⁠an ⁠offshore platform, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

It marked China's first successful controlled recovery of a carrier rocket's booster, CCTV said.


Israel Says Ready to Attack Iran for ‘Third Time if Necessary’

A woman walks past an anti-US mural next to the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
A woman walks past an anti-US mural next to the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
TT

Israel Says Ready to Attack Iran for ‘Third Time if Necessary’

A woman walks past an anti-US mural next to the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)
A woman walks past an anti-US mural next to the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran, 09 July 2026. (EPA)

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday said his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed, vowing to do so "with even greater force". 

The latest remarks came as new fighting erupted between the United States and Iran, raising fears of a return to full-scale war after an April ceasefire and a June US-Iran agreement to end hostilities. 

"The army is ready and on alert for a resumption of fighting, in order to regain air superiority and strike again... in Iran, to eliminate threats, including a third time if necessary," Katz said at a military ceremony. 

"If we have to go back, we will go back, with even greater force," he added. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had been weakened by the two previous military campaigns Israel launched against it. 

But he also acknowledged that the conflict was not yet over. 

"The Iranian axis is weaker than ever before, while Israel is stronger than ever before," he said. 

"We proved that the long arm of the Israeli Air Force can reach anywhere, from Yemen to Iran. Yet we must also acknowledge that the campaign is not over." 

The war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched an air campaign against Iran that killed the country's supreme leader and other senior officials. 

It was Israel's second campaign against Iran, following a 12-day war in June 2025. 


Spain Says Trump Softened Rhetoric After Learning of Madrid’s Contributions to NATO

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives at Ankara Airport ahead of the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, July 7, 2026. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives at Ankara Airport ahead of the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, July 7, 2026. (Reuters)
TT

Spain Says Trump Softened Rhetoric After Learning of Madrid’s Contributions to NATO

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives at Ankara Airport ahead of the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, July 7, 2026. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives at Ankara Airport ahead of the 36th NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Ankara, Türkiye, July 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Madrid said on Thursday US President Donald Trump had softened his rhetoric on Spain, hours after threatening to halt trade with the NATO ally, because he had been made aware of a surge in Madrid's contributions to the alliance in recent years.

At a NATO summit in Ankara on Wednesday, Trump called Spain a "terrible partner" and ordered an immediate halt to all trade with the country after disputes over defense spending and the Iran war.

On his way back to the United States after the summit, he told reporters aboard Air Force One: "I did have issues, and I still do. But Spain, they came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today."

Asked what Spain had done, ‌he said: "They honored ‌a request for lots of payments, and if they didn't, we ‌wouldn't ⁠have even talked to ⁠them."

A spokesperson for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said this was understood to be a reference to Madrid complying with NATO's former defense spending target of 2% of GDP.

At the summit, Sanchez highlighted that Spain would reach that goal this year after more than doubling nominal defense spending from 0.98% of GDP in 2017 to nearly €33 billion ($37.7 billion).

He played down the rift and said he had a "very cordial" conversation with Trump during the summit.

But Trump has repeatedly criticized Spain for not agreeing to a new objective ⁠for NATO member states to spend 5% of GDP on defense by ‌2035. Spain's left-wing government says it wants to respond to ‌real threats rather than increasing spending for the sake of it, as that would imply cuts to ‌social benefits.

It was not immediately clear what the softening of Trump's rhetoric might mean for his ‌threat to halt trade.

Asked about the next steps following Trump's directive, a US official in Washington told Reuters the relevant federal agencies would present Trump with a "menu" of Spanish products that may be embargoed.

Trade lawyers say Trump could invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose a full or partial embargo on Spanish imports. ‌Trump's first administration imposed a 30% anti-dumping tariff on Spanish black olives in 2018.

OPPOSITION CRITICISM

According to the Spanish government's agenda, Defense Minister Margarita Robles ⁠was set to meet ⁠with US Ambassador Benjamin Leon later on Thursday for a "working meeting", without providing further details.

Sources in the Spanish delegation to Ankara cited by El Mundo said Madrid likened the dispute to a staged fight lacking actual conflict and that Spanish officials had not detected any economic consequences or a decline in investment in Spain in recent years despite Trump's criticisms.

Some figures in the main opposition People's Party (PP) blamed Sanchez for the spat but said they stood with their country.

A senior PP official highlighted the interdependence between Spanish and US firms, which meant "economic reality takes precedence over the grandiloquent statements (Trump) seeks to make in order to attack Spain".

In the PP-run region of Aragon - where big US tech firms including Amazon and Microsoft have invested billions of dollars in data centers - officials said it was business as usual.

Santiago Abascal - a Trump ally who leads far-right party Vox - said the tensions with Washington were "absolutely dramatic" and accused Sanchez of "destroying Spain's credibility on the world stage".