KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine exchanged more long-range drone attacks that have become a staple of the more than three-year war, officials said Friday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul.

Russian and Ukrainian officials are discussing the timing of a potential new meeting, Putin said. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Belarus, he said that the terms of a potential ceasefire, which the Kremlin has so far effectively rejected, are expected to be on the agenda.

The war shows no signs of abating as U.S.-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthrough.

Two recent rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement.

Ukraine wants the next step in peace talks to be a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.

Given Putin’s recent comments, it’s unclear how this will pan out. The Russian leader has said a summit meeting should take place only after the main provisions of a peace deal have been agreed, and that could take months or years.

Putin has also repeated his claim that Zelenskyy lost his legitimacy after his presidential term expired last year — an allegation rejected by Kyiv and its allies.

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and decoy drones as well as eight missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Friday, claiming that air defenses stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. Both regions lie east of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s General Staff said later on Friday that four military aircraft stationed at the Marinovka airfield in the Volgograd region had been destroyed during a mission involving Special Forces and Ukrainian intelligence overnight.

“Four enemy aircraft, namely Su-34s, and a technical and operational unit, where various combat aircraft are serviced and repaired, were destroyed,” according to a preliminary assessment posted online.

The AP couldn’t independently verify the claim. Russian officials did not immediately comment, nor did they mention the Marinovka airfield in public statements about the overnight drone attack on the region.

Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov, however, on Friday morning listed the region’s Kalanchyovsky district where Marinovka is located among three areas targeted by Ukrainian drones.

Bocharov said that traffic on the bridge over the Don River in the Kalachyovsky district was temporarily restricted, but didn’t offer any other details.

Drones ubiquitous

Long-range drone strikes have been a hallmark of the war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and deadlier drones has turned the war into a testing ground for new weaponry.

Ukrainian drones have pulled off some stunning feats. At the start of June, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged in a covert Ukrainian operation using cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory.

The Ukrainian air force said that 359 incoming drones were either intercepted or electronically jammed.

Ukraine is employing new countermeasures against Russia’s escalation of combined missile and drone attacks, officials say. Instead of relying on ground-based mobile teams to shoot down Shaheds, Ukraine is deploying interceptor drones it has developed.

The Ukrainian attack forced three Russian airports to briefly suspend flights, officials said.

The authorities also briefly closed the Crimean Bridge overnight as drones targeted Crimea.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine reported any major damage or casualties in the attacks.