Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey on Monday for the second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war after a string of stunning attacks over the weekend.

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, said a day after the strike that 41 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Other assessments, however, including one by BBC News Ukraine, tallied a more modest number, upward of 11 destroyed jets.

Russia peace negotiations got underway in Turkey on Monday in an effort to find a way forward in ending more than three years of war triggered by Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

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The head of Ukraine's SBU sec urity service, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, said on Monday that Kyiv hit 41 aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bom bers Russia has used extensively to fire long-range missiles at Ukraine.

A bipartisan pair of US senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Friday and urged stronger sanctions against Russia, while uncertainty swirls over whether the next round of peace talks will move ahead in the coming days.

A critical delay in the arrival of around $7bn in funding has reportedly hit the Russian-led Akkuyu project to construct Turkey’s first nuclear power plant (NPP). The matter was addressed as Turkey’s top diplomat Hakan Fidan met Russian President Vladimir Putin and various of his officials,

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey have agreed to leverage their influence over Libyan factions to help prevent the resurgence of armed conflict in the country.