Talks between Ukraine and Russia have started on Monday at the Belarussian border for the first time since Moscow’s invasion, reports Reuters citing Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak.
Ukraine said on Sunday it had agreed to send a delegation to meet Russian representatives on the border with Belarus, which would be the foes’ first public contact since war erupted.
Belarus announced Monday that the venue for the talks had been prepared and they would start as soon as the delegations arrived.
However, with his government reporting hundreds of civilian deaths and Russian troops besieging key cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was skeptical about the talks.
“As always, I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try,” he said.
The United States said Putin was escalating the war with ‘dangerous rhetoric’ about Russia’s nuclear posture, amid signs Russian forces were preparing to besiege major cities in the democratic country of about 44 million people.
As missiles rained down, nearly 400,000 civilians, mainly women and children, have fled into neighboring countries, a UN relief agency said.
A senior US defence official said Russia had fired more than 350 missiles at Ukrainian targets so far, some hitting civilian infrastructure.
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