Russia, Ukraine Set For Peace Talks tomorrow

Russian delegation leader Vladimir Medinsky has confirmed that talks between Ukraine and Russia will resume next week but said they would kick off on Tuesday.

The new talks are set to start in Turkey as the host country on either Monday or Tuesday, with Zelensky desperate to halt the bombardment of cities like Mariupol, where officials said the situation is “catastrophic”.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the new negotiations, saying he hoped they would bring peace “without delay”, and lamented a month-long Russian invasion that has already killed thousands and devastated numerous Ukrainian cities.

Medinsky wrote on Telegram that a face-to-face meeting was planned for Tuesday and Wednesday but did not specify the location.

The Turkish presidency also confirmed that “the next round of talks between Russia and Ukraine will be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday”.

The Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate said during a phone call yesterday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “agreed that the next meeting of Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told CNN International Anchor Becky Anderson yesterday that the talks will take place Tuesday.

Erdogan and Putin discussed the “latest situation in the Russia-Ukraine war” and the negotiation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, according to the Turkish Presidency readout of the call.

“During the meeting, President Erdogan underlined the necessity of establishing a ceasefire and peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible and improving the humanitarian situation in the region and stated that Turkey will continue to contribute in every possible way during this process”, the statement continued.

About 170,000 civilians remain trapped in Mariupol without adequate food, water or medicine, as the southern port city is being turned “into dust” by Russian shelling, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

France, Greece and Turkey are hoping to launch a “humanitarian operation” to evacuate civilians within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who has sought an OK from Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Several previous rounds of peace talks have failed to halt the fighting or overcome fundamental disagreements about Kyiv’s alignment with the West and Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory.

But with Russia’s much-larger military humbled by fierce Ukrainian resistance and forced to abandon efforts to capture Kyiv, there is renewed hope for talks.

“Our goal is obvious — peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible“, Zelensky said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating red lines.

He said.  “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory”.

Zelensky has previously indicated he is “carefully” considering a Russian demand of Ukrainian “neutrality”.

“This point of the negotiations is understandable to me and it is being discussed, it is being carefully studied”, Zelensky said during an interview with several independent Russian news organisations.

Putin has avoided being precise about the goals of his invasion, stating only that he wanted to “demilitarise and denazify” but not occupy Ukraine.

The UN estimates that at least 1,100 civilians have died and more than 10 million have been displaced in a devastating war that has gone on far longer than Moscow expected. –

Macron warned that any escalation “in words or action” could harm his efforts in talks with Putin to

Divided nation

According to AFP, many in Ukraine remain suspicious that Moscow could use the talks as an opportunity to regroup and fix serious tactical and logistical problems in the Russian military.

Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Putin could still be aiming to divide the country in a Korea-like fashion — to “impose a separation line between the occupied and unoccupied regions”.

“After a failure to capture Kyiv and remove Ukraine’s government, Putin is changing his main operational directions. These are south and east,” he wrote on Facebook. “It will be an attempt to set up South and North Koreas in Ukraine.”

Russia has de facto control over the southern region of Crimea and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the country’s eastern Donbas region.

The head of Ukraine’s Lugansk separatist region has indicated it may hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.

Resistance in besieged Mariupol is the main obstacle preventing Moscow from gaining unbroken control of land from the Donbas to the Crimea — its residents have recounted harrowing scenes of destruction and death.