Ukraine demands ‘immediate ceasefire’, Russian withdrawal

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This handout video grab taken and released by the Ukraine Presidency press service on February 26, 2022 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky holding a briefing in Kyiv. – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Azerbaijan’s Aliyev and Turkey’s Erdogan have suggested to organise talks with Russia, which “can only be welcomed”. (Photo by UKRAINE PRESIDENCY / AFP)

KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) – Ukraine demanded an immediate Russian ceasefire and troop withdrawal on Monday as its delegation arrived in Belarus for talks with Russian negotiators on the fifth day of the Kremlin’s offensive.

Ukraine’s delegation is set to meet Russian representatives for the first talks since Moscow’s invasion, as the fighting for several Ukrainian cities continues and the Russian ruble collapses.

The meeting will take place just across the border in neighbouring Belarus, a key Kremlin ally that has allowed Russian troops passage to attack Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian delegation arrived at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to take part in talks with representatives of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.

“The key issue of the talks is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a separate statement urged Russian troops to abandon their equipment and leave the battlefield in order to save their lives, claiming that more than 4,500 Russian soldiers had already lost their lives.

A Ukrainian serviceman talks on a smartphone in front of a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on February 25, 2022. – Russian forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the invading troops were targeting civilians and explosions could be heard in the besieged capital. Pre-dawn blasts in Kyiv set off a second day of violence after Russian President Vladimir Putin defied Western warnings to unleash a full-scale ground invasion and air assault on Thursday that quickly claimed dozens of lives and displaced at least 100,000 people. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)

He also urged the European Union to give Ukraine “immediate” membership, via a special procedure.

Russian state media posted video of Ukrainian delegates arriving by helicopter.

Russian delegate Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee, wrote on the Telegram messenger service: “We will start soon”.

The talks come as Ukraine’s forces fiercely resist the Russian offensive, a day after President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence chiefs to put the country’s nuclear forces on high alert.

A picture taken on March 24, 2017 shows Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, walking along a hall of the Russian State Duma building. – Top Russian media outlets launched a rare boycott of parliament on March 22, 2018 after it dismissed claims from a number of journalists that a senior lawmaker had sexually harassed them. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

The Ukrainian delegation includes defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov as well as deputy foreign minister Mykola Tochytskyi.

The talks come after a phone call between Zelensky and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Zelensky has said he is sceptical about the possibility of a breakthrough.

“As always: I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting, but let them try,” he said.

Kyiv was initially reluctant to send a delegation to Belarus, given the country’s role as facilitator in Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

© Agence France-Presse