Before dawn on Tuesday, air raid sirens blared throughout Ukraine as the Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were preparing to meet in Turkey for talks, where Kyiv is asking for ceasefire without compromising on its sovereignty.
Ukraine and the United States don’t see much hope of a positive development at the meeting, even when the Russian invasion looks to have thwarted on several fronts.
In over a month of the war, more than 3.8 million people have left Ukraine, thousands have been killed and injured, and the Russian economy has been hammered by western sanctions.
In the southern port city of Mariupol almost 5,000 people have been killed, which includes around 210 children, as per the data from the mayor.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “We are not trading people, land or sovereignty. The minimum programme will be humanitarian questions, and the maximum programme is reaching an agreement on a ceasefire.”
A senior United States State Department official said that President Putin does not appear to be ready to make compromises so as to bring an end to the war.
Similarly felt Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser, Vadym Denysenko, who said that he had doubts that the talks would arrive at any breakthrough.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson said that so far the talks have yielded no substantial progress, but it was important for them to continue it in person. He didn’t give any further information.
“We, people who are alive, have to wait. Doesn’t everything the Russia military has done to date warrant an oil embargo,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a Monday night address.
At a time when the Western countries have imposed a plethora of severe sanctions upon Russia, Europe is heavily dependent on Russia for its energy needs and till now has been reluctant to block the energy imports from Moscow.
The government officials of the United States and German are scheduled to meet in Berlin this week, along with the executives of the energy industry to look at ways to boost alternate energy supplies for Germany.
The Kremlin has demanded the “unfriendly” countries to pay for the Russian gas in roubles, not euros.
Hirokazu Matsuno, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary said that Japanese companies would be asked to refuse paying in roubles if Russia asks so.
As the humanitarian crisis is rising with every day, the United Nations said it had been able to supply food and medical supplies into Kharkiv.
“We have destroyed the myth of the invincible Russian army. We are resisting against the aggression of one of the strongest armies in the world and have succeeded in making them change their goals,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Neither side has given way to the Russian territorial demands, including Crimea and eastern territories of Donbas, which Moscow has demanded Kyiv to surrender to the pro-Russian separatists.
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