Russia offers three-day ceasefire to ‘collect the dead’

Russia proposed a limited ceasefire on Monday to allow both sides to retrieve fallen soldiers' bodies from battlefield fronts as peace talks reached an impasse after their first round failed to achieve progress toward a broader truce. Vladimir Putin's chief negotiator suggested using short pauses in hostilities to clear areas of unaccounted combat deaths, while the two sides had previously agreed on an "all-for-all" exchange of captured soldiers and prisoners of war. However, Moscow refused to remove key demands, including withdrawing Ukrainian forces from partially occupied eastern regions, which hindered progress toward a longer-term ceasefire agreement.