The meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations to negotiate a cessation of hostilities agreement held this Monday on the border between Ukraine and Belarus, near the Pripyat River, has come to an end with “progress” although without any agreement. Both sides have shown their willingness to resume talks in the “immediate future” after “consulting” with their leaders in their respective capitals. That yes, by the part of Russia follows a threat of nuclear alert.
As reported by the office of the chief of staff of the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, to the RIA agency, the two parties have identified “a number of priority issues” and “have outlined certain solutions”, with the ultimate goal of achieving a ceasefire. Both sides hope to resume talks “in the immediate future.” The next meeting will be on the border between Poland and Belarus, they reported.
Shortly before the end of that meeting, Zelensky signed the official application to join the EU. The president has asked Brussels for a procedure through the emergency mechanism, but the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, replied that they are “focused on how to respond in the next few hours, not on what happens in the next few years.” On the table would be, in any case, to declare Ukraine a “candidate for accession”.
At this morning’s meeting, Russia arrived with its weapons loaded. On the one hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin put the nuclear deterrence forces on alert this Sunday, considering that, aside from the economic sanctions that the West is taking against Russia, NATO is making “aggressive statements” against his country. Thus, the nuclear forces have been ordered to be in “special regimen of combat service”, according to the government agency Sputnik.
On the other hand, Russia intensified its bombing of the country’s second city, Kharkov, leaving hundreds of wounded and dead among the civilian population, as reported by Ukraine. Russian troops have not stopped acting during the negotiations.
The delegations from both countries met at the Alexandrovka-Vilcha checkpoint, on the border between Belarus and Ukraine, although Zelensky did not have much hope that they would come to fruition. “I don’t really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try. So that no citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, did not try to stop the war when there was even the slightest chance,” Zelensky declared on television, as he reports CNN.
At noon, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, spoke with Putin to demand a ceasefire and an end to attacks on civilians. According to the Elysee, Putin insisted on his demand for the “neutrality, denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine” before ending the war, although he agreed to end the indiscriminate bombing of civilians. || What are the possible scenarios for the end of the war?
Zelensky reported that the decision to hold this meeting was negotiated with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, with whom he had a telephone conversation on Sunday in which they agreed that the meeting would take place “without preconditions.”
In return, Lukashenko promised that “all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the trip, the talks and the return of the Ukrainian delegation,” Zelensky confirmed on his Telegram channel.
On Sunday, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus to negotiate a cessation of hostilities agreement with Ukraine made up of “representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and other departments, including the presidential administration,” the Kremlin spokesman explained. Dimitri Peskov.
“Let no one interpret these talks in terms of what we are willing to accept. First, Russia did not want to talk. Later, when they have begun to lose lives, and after the failure of their lightning offensive, they began to speak in the language of the ultimatum. Now, having suffered defeat after defeat, they tell us they just want to talk. Therefore, the fact that talks are going to take place without preconditions is already a victory for Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba said in a public appearance.
Zelensky had reiterated late on Saturday his refusal to undertake any type of negotiation on Belarusian soil, a country he accuses of actively participating in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and insisted that he has offered Russia other forums such as Poland, Turkey or Azerbaijan. , without any answer.
Meanwhile, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has suggested that NATO and the EU ask former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mediate to resolve hostilities stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Merkel speaks Russian and has had numerous meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his 16 years as chancellor, which ended last December.
Kiev and Kharkov resist
On the war front, the president of the Kharkov Regional State Administration, Oleg Sineguboc, reported this Sunday that Russian troops have managed to make their way to the center of Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine. However, he claimed hours later that Ukrainian forces are “totally” in control of the city and “the enemy is being totally eradicated from the city.”
In the meantime, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have assured that the situation in Kiev is “calm” and that the capital is “completely controlled” by the Ukrainian Army after the various clashes that have taken place in the city on the fourth day of the conflict.
Also, in the daily report this Sunday, the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have estimated the number of dead Russian troops at more than 3,000, as well as 200 prisoners of war.
On the other hand, there is the humanitarian crisis: “Ukraine has just updated the refugee figures. They are based on data from national authorities. The current total figure is 368,000 and continues to rise,” UNHCR reported through its online account. Twitter.
A UNHCR spokesman posted to the border between Ukraine and Poland, Chris Meizer, explained that there are hundreds of vehicles waiting to cross into Poland and a queue of up to 40 kilometers with “people who are refugees, who seek safety in Poland”, in the vast majority of them women and children.
To this figure must be added the more than 122,000 residents of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, who are already refugees in Russian territory since the beginning of the Russian invasion, police services reported this Sunday. Russians to the TASS agency.
EU meeting
The EU foreign ministers will meet again this Sunday to discuss military support for Ukraine in the face of the invasion it is being subjected to by Russia, as announced by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
This Sunday, Borrell has specified the content of his participation in the meeting. “I will propose to the ministers that they use the European Fund for Peace for two emergency aid measures: to finance the supply of lethal material to the heroic Ukrainian army, which is fighting with fierce resistance against the Russian invaders, and to provide non-lethal supplies that are needed urgently, as fuel”, the diplomat stated.
The meeting will take place hours after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the increase in his defense budget to 2% of GDP, with a new fund of 100,000 million euros aimed at improving Germany’s military capacity.
As for sanctions, the European Union and the US continue to intensify the economic suffocation of Russia, agreeing to its exclusion from the SWIFT system, while increasing the amounts of economic aid or war supplies to Ukraine.
In addition, some twenty European countries, including Spain, have decided to close their airspace to Russian airlines and their connections with the country led by Vladimir Putin. Russia has taken the same measure against these.
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