The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says officials will meet for talks with a Russian delegation at the Belarus border. Steps that the transfer comes after a phone call between Zelensky and Belarusian chief, Alexander Lukashenko.
“The politicians agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet the Russian one without preconditions on the Ukraine-Belarus border, close to the Pripyat River.”
It’s understood that during the call between Zelensky and Lukashenko, the chief of Belarus gave assurances that “all planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on Belarus territory will stay on the bottom in the course of the journey, negotiations and return of the Ukrainian delegation”.
The Kremlin had wanted to carry talks in Belarus itself, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying there was a Russian delegation prepared for talks within the city of Gomel. However, Zelensky has refused to comply with talks in Belarus, after Russian troops have been allowed to assemble on the northern border with Ukraine previous to the invasion. Instead, Kyiv had proposed the cities of Warsaw, Istanbul, Baku, Bratislava, or Budapest as choices.
Ukraine continues to defend itself against the Russian invasion, managing to hold off Putin’s troops from entering Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv yesterday. In Putin’s newest transfer, the Russian leader has ordered his nuclear deterrent forces on high alert, an escalatory move which has been strongly condemned by the international community.
Meanwhile, protests towards the invasion of Ukraine have been happening in cities across the world, most notably in Russian cities like Moscow and St Petersburg, with over 2,000 folks detained so far..