The heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy failed to reach an agreement for a ceasefire in Turkey on Thursday, in their first face-to-face after two weeks of invasion and hours after the bombing of a pediatric hospital in the city of Mariupol, which caused three dead and worldwide revulsion.
“We wanted to get a 24-hour ceasefire. (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov said that Moscow wanted to talk about humanitarian corridors”, said the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba after the meeting in Antalya, in the south of Turkey.
The Ukrainian official assured that Russia aims to “continue its aggression until Ukraine capitulates”.
“I heard today that the ceasefire is linked, on the part of Russia, to the respect of the demands expressed by President (Vladimir) Putin to Ukraine”, he added. “But Ukraine has not given up, is not giving up and will not give up”, he insisted before the journalists.
Russia “did not attack Ukraine”
Despite not giving up their positions, both officials said they wanted to continue negotiating and making efforts after this first meeting since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Lavrov said his country was willing to continue talking in the same format as the first three meetings in Belarus and that a meeting between Putin and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskywas ruled out for now.
Responding to journalists after the meeting, Lavrov also assured that “Russia does not plan to attack other countries and did not attack Ukraine” but replied to “direct threatsagainst your safety.
The minister also criticized the “dangerous” arms deliveries from Western countries to Kiev.
“Those who are loading Ukraine with weapons have to understand, of course, that they will bear responsibility for their actions,” he said.
So far, the talks between Kiev and Moscow have achieved local truces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. But Russia has been accused of not having respected these agreements.
Lavrov assured this Thursday that the “Russian initiative for the daily opening of humanitarian corridors remains in force”.
Russia maintains the siege of the large Ukrainian cities and continues to bombard various regions. Hundreds of civilians have been sheltering from the bombing in basements and makeshift shelters for days. In some places, the humanitarian situation is critical, according to witnesses.
Turkey’s meeting came a day after the bombing of a children’s hospital in Mariupol, in the southeast of the country, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov that is besieged by Russia.
At least three people, including a girl, perished in the attack, according to the latest balance of the municipal authorities communicated on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, who called the bombing “war crime”, published videos showing the destruction of the place.
Surround Kiev
The images caused worldwide revulsion. The White House denounced a use “wild” from the force and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the attack “immoral”.
This Thursday, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, accused Russia of probably committing “war crimes“for attacking”to civil society in an indiscriminate manner”.
This Thursday, the Kremlin said that it will ask the army for information about this attack, but Lavrov in Turkey assured that it was serving as a base for a nationalist battalion.
“All the women who were going to give birth, all the nurses and all the support staff had been expelledLavrov assured.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Mariupol since the Russian military siege began nine days ago, according to municipal figures.
On Wednesday, in its latest official balance, the UN estimated that 516 civilians were killed and 800 wounded in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, which also caused the forced departure of more than two million people from the country.
On Wednesday, at least 35,000 civilians were evacuated from Sumy, Enerhodar and areas near Kiev, according to figures reported by Zelensky.
In recent hours and according to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian forces continue to advance to “surround Kiev”, also attacking on other fronts, such as the cities of Izium, Petrovske, Sumy, Ojtyrka and the Donetsk region.
To the northeast of the capital, important columns of smoke rose this Thursday morning, according to AFP journalists.
Assistance and more sanctions”
Since the beginning of the invasion, the United States and its NATO partners have supported Kiev but have avoided getting directly involved in the conflict. On Wednesday, Washington definitively rejected Poland’s offer to deliver fighter jets to Ukrainian troops.
However, the US House of Representatives has adopted a new federal budget that includes an allocation of nearly $14 billion for Ukraine.
It is about humanitarian aid, but also arms and ammunition for Kiev, it must now be voted on in the Senate before being signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also approved emergency aid of US$1.4 billion for Ukraine on Wednesday.
This Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused the United States of having financed a biological weapons program in Ukraine and said that it had found evidence of it in Ukrainian laboratories.
“The goal of these Pentagon-funded biological investigations in Ukraine was to create a mechanism for the secret spread of deadly pathogens.”, said ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
In Russia, Western sanctions are beginning to weigh on the population. The last foreign companies to leave the country were Japanese video game giants Sony and Nintendo.
This Thursday, the British government announced new sanctions against Russia, which will affect seven oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea FC, which he recently put up for sale.
These punitive measures include an asset freeze, a ban on dealing with British individuals and companies, and a travel ban.
And this Thursday, the leaders of the European Union (EU) will meet in Versailles, in France, to discuss the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, from the point of view of security and energy.
Source: Gestion
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