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.

The second meeting between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul has shown that a settlement is a distant prospect. To strengthen Ukraine’s hand in future talks, Europeans have a three-fold task.