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ISTANBUL (AP) \u2014 Delegations from Russia and Ukraine gathered in Turkey on Monday for their second round of direct peace talks<\/a> in just over two weeks, although expectations were low for any significant progress on ending the three-year war<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was in Istanbul for the meeting, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said in a message posted on the Ukrainian Embassy WhatsApp group.<\/p>\n The Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, arrived Sunday evening, Russian state media reported.<\/p>\n Turkish officials said the meeting would start at 1 p.m. local time, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan presiding over the talks and officials from the Turkish intelligence agency also present.<\/p>\n However, Ukrainian spokesperson Tykhyi said the start would be at midday local time. It was not immediately possible to clarify the discrepancy.<\/p>\n Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions<\/a> for stopping the war.<\/p>\n Fierce fighting has in the meantime continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other\u2019s territory with deep strikes.<\/p>\n On Sunday, a Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes<\/a> deep inside Russia, Ukraine\u2019s Security Service said, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones.<\/p>\n Russian air defenses downed 162 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions overnight, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said Monday.<\/p>\n Ukrainian air defenses damaged 52 out of 80 drones launched by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.<\/p>\n Two ballistic missiles struck a residential neighborhood in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday morning, including one that hit near a school, the city\u2019s mayor said.<\/p>\n One missile landed near an apartment building, while the second struck a road near the school, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement and published a photo of a wide crater.<\/p>\n \u201cStanding next to the crater, you realize how different it all could have been,\u201d Terekhov wrote. \u201cA few more meters \u2014 and it would have hit the building. A few more minutes \u2014 and cars, buses would have been on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n No casualties were reported.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writers Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n