IRIA News

The Ukrainian and Russian delegations held talks in Gomel, Belarus, as Russian armed forces captured two cities in southeastern Ukraine.

According to the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky, the first round of talks ended and negotiations will be resumed in the coming days after both sides consult with their leaders at respective capitals.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that Russia continued bombings on Ukrainian cities while talks were underway, while dozens have been killed and hundreds wounded in Russian shelling on Kharkiv.

Before the negotiations began in Gomel, the Ukrainian president said that the peace talks are the result of his phone talks with the Belarusian president, and the talks would be held without preconditions.

On February 27, Russian president’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Ukrainian side has agreed to hold talks in Gomel city of Belarus. Peskov suggested that “the Russian delegation is ready for these talks”, but stressed that Moscow will not “suspend the military operation in Ukraine during the talks with the Ukrainian side”.

“For our part, we have warned the Ukrainian side that this time the actions suggested by the military operation will not be suspended,” Peskov said.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected to hold peace talks with Russia in Belarus, as it allowed Moscow to use its grounds for launching attacks on Ukraine.

Zelenskyy suggested alternative locations for negotiations and listed Budapest, Warsaw, Bratislava, Baku, or Istanbul as possible cities for talks with Russia.

However, Ukrainian president’s press secretary Sergey Nikiforov said on February 26 that President Zelenskyy has accepted the Russian president’s proposal to negotiate peace and a ceasefire.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “As you know, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stated his readiness today to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine. Initially, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the [Russian] operation aims to aid LPR and DPR, including by demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Which is, essentially, an inalienable component of the neutral status.

Peskov added that “In response to Zelenskyy’s proposal, Russian President Putin is ready to send a delegation at the level of representatives of Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry and Presidential Administration to Minsk for negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation.”

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov also said on February 25 that Russia was “ready to hold talks at any moment, once the Ukrainian Armed Forces respond to our president’s call, end their resistance and lay down their arms.”

He stressed that Russia had always called for negotiations by saying that “There is no shortage of talks but when talks are replaced with blatant sabotage, while Russia is accused of allegedly failing to implement the Minsk accords, it’s effrontery, which is what some of our Western colleagues are famous for, but this time, it just went beyond all limits because it was accompanied by a continuous deterioration of the Russian-speaking population’s situation in Ukraine.”

Lavrov addressed the Ukrainian Armed Forces by saying that “No one plans to attack and oppress them, let them return to their families, and let us give the Ukrainian people a chance to decide their future.”

On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine, terming it as a “special military operation aimed at demilitarization and denazification”. The conflict has entered the fourth day, as Ukraine reported heavy casualties and damages by the Russian attacking forces.

Separately, President of France Emmanuel Macron held phone talks with Russian President Putin urged him to stop attacks on Ukrainian civilians and residential areas, and preserve infrastructure, as well as key roads in southern Kyiv and other parts of the country. The Russian president agreed to stay in touch with French President Macron to prevent the situation from worsening.