Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that talks between Russia and Ukraine are not underway now but will resume on Monday. In another context, Ukraine announced the evacuation of more than 140 thousand civilians from the areas of operations in the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that talks between Russia and Ukraine are not underway now, but will resume on Monday, the RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Peskov made the comments after Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Aristovich said Ukraine and Russia were holding talks on Sunday, with a particular focus on the situation around the besieged city of Mariupol.
Also Monday, an American delegation headed by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet a Chinese delegation in the Italian capital, Rome, tomorrow, Monday, to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to what the White House announced.
"Talks between National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Policy Adviser Yang Jiechi will take place in Rome tomorrow, Monday," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement.
"The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage competition between our two countries on the one hand, and the impact of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine on regional and global security on the other," the spokeswoman said.
In this context, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter that he spoke by phone with his US counterpart, Anthony Blinken.
"We both agree that more work must be done to stop Russian aggression and hold Russia accountable for its crimes," he added.
A call to stop the war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called on US software companies Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp and German software group SAP Group to stop supporting their products in Russia.
He wrote on Twitter: "Stop subsidizing your products in Russia. Stop the war!"
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshuk said in an interview with state television on Sunday that more than 140,000 civilians have been evacuated from the country's operational areas.
Vereshuk added that a humanitarian aid convoy failed again to reach the besieged port city of Mariupol due to Russian bombing.
"The convoy has stopped in the city of Berdyansk (occupied by Russian forces) and tomorrow it will try again to reach Mariupol," she said.
The start of the fourth round Zelensky: The goal of the negotiations is to arrange a meeting with Putin
On Monday, the fourth round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations via video began, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the goal of the two negotiating delegations between Ukraine and Russia is to arrange a meeting between the two countries' heads of state, stressing that his country's delegation will insist on that.
A fourth round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine started on Monday, in the context of discussing ways to reach a solution to the crisis between the two countries and the recent military escalation between them.
The negotiations began at half past eight GMT, and took place between the delegations of the two countries via video conference technology, unlike the previous rounds.
The first and second rounds were held in Belarus between two delegations from the two countries, and the third was a meeting between Russian Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Dmytro Kuleba in Turkey last Thursday.
"Our positions have not changed: peace, immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of all Russian forces, only after that can we talk about our neighborly relations and our political differences," Ukrainian negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a video posted on Twitter.
While the Ukrainian president said in a video speech: "Among the instructions that I gave to my country's delegation in the negotiations with Russia on Monday is to seek a meeting between the presidents of the two countries."
He said, "Members of our delegation have a clear mission, which is to arrange a meeting for the heads of the two countries. A possible meeting should focus on real results."
The fourth round of negotiations comes nearly three weeks after the Russian attack on Ukraine, and although officials have given optimistic assessments recently, the negotiations have not yielded positive results.
Speaking about the situation on the ground, Zelensky said: "We are now on the 18th day of Ukraine's battle for its sovereignty, freedom and survival."
He pointed out that the Russian bombing of a military base in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Sunday morning left 35 dead and 134 wounded, stressing that the targeted place did not pose any threat to Russia.
He added that the Russian bombing targeted the "International Center for Peacekeeping and Security", and that it is only 20 kilometers from the borders of a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The Ukrainian president warned NATO countries that they will be face to face with the Russian threats, addressing the NATO countries by saying: "I repeat to you, not imposing an air embargo in the skies of Ukraine means that Russian missiles will fall on your regions and on the territory of NATO citizens, it is only a matter of time."
On February 24, Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine, which has resulted in the flight of more than 2.5 million Ukrainians towards neighboring countries.
Moscow requires to end its military operation that Kyiv abandon any plans that would join military entities, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "NATO" and take a position of complete neutrality.
Essentially, three previous rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus focused on humanitarian issues and led to the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to escape the fighting.
On Friday, Putin said there had been some "positive shifts" in the talks, but he did not elaborate.
Talks between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers yielded no clear progress toward a ceasefire last Thursday, but analysts said their mere meeting left a window open for ending the war.
Tags:
EUROPE UPDATE