Russia and Ukraine fail to agree on ceasefire and tanks approach Kiev

Those responsible for Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy did not reach an agreement for a ceasefire in Turkey on Thursday, in their first face-to-face after two weeks of Russian military offensive, which continues to advance and reaches the gates of Kiev.

“We wanted to get a 24-hour ceasefire. (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov said that Moscow wanted to talk about humanitarian corridors”, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after the meeting in Antalya, southern Turkey.

The Ukrainian official assured that Russia intends “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.

Russia “did not attack Ukraine”

Despite not giving up their positions, both officials said they wanted to continue negotiating.

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 Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky was 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 load Ukraine with weapons must understand, of course, that they will bear responsibility for their actions“, he pointed.

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.

Russia maintains the siege of large Ukrainian cities and hundreds of civilians have spent days protecting themselves from bombing in basements and makeshift shelters. In some places, the humanitarian situation is critical, according to witnesses.

To Kyiv

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian forces continue to advance to surround Kiev, without neglecting other fronts, such as the cities of Izium, Petrovske, Sumy, Ojtyrka and the Donestsk region.

Russian tanks reached the northeastern limits of Kiev on Thursday, having entered the northern and western outskirts.

Five kilometers from the capital, the town of Velyka Dymerka was the target of Russian Grad rockets.

In two weeks of offensive, half of the population of Kiev has left, said the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. This Thursday there were just under two million people left in the capital.

This Thursday, humanitarian corridors were re-established for the evacuation of civilians in several areas especially affected by the fighting. In the morning, a long convoy headed northwest from Kiev, coming from towns such as Irpin or Butcha.

On Wednesday, more than 60,000 Ukrainians were evacuated from different parts of the country, according to Zelensky.

“hateful war crime”

The meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian ministers in Turkey 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 report.

The images caused worldwide revulsion. The White House denounced a use “wild” of force and the EU considered it a “heinous war crime.

The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, accused Russia of probably committing “war crimes” for attacking “civil society in an indiscriminate way”.

The Russian Foreign Minister tried to justify saying that the hospital served 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.

At least 71 children have died in Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, Liudmyla Denisova, head of human rights in the Ukrainian Parliament, announced on Thursday.

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 almost US$14 billion for aid to Ukraine, in the form of humanitarian assistance, but also weapons and ammunition.

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.

Putin warned that the sanctions could lead to a rise in world inflation due to rising food prices as Russia will not be able to export enough fertilizer. For now, said the president, Russia will maintain all its hydrocarbon deliveries despite the conflict.

And European Union (EU) leaders were meeting Thursday and Friday in Versailles, France, to discuss the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from a security and energy standpoint.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has already lowered its growth forecast for the Eurozone’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 by 0.5%, while raising its inflation forecast by almost 2% due to the economic impact of the war in Ukraine.