(Kyiv) The heads of Russian and Ukrainian diplomacy meet in Turkey on Thursday for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, talks which come after the bombing of a pediatric hospital in the city besieged Mariupol where three people, including a young girl, were killed.
Posted at 6:17 a.m.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, both arrived in Antalya (south), a popular seaside resort for Russian tourists, began their meeting on Thursday morning under the mediation of the head of Turkish diplomacy Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Officials from Kyiv and Moscow have already met on several occasions, but this is the first time that Russia, increasingly isolated by Western sanctions against it, has sent a minister for discussions on this crisis, which started exactly two weeks ago.
Talks between Kyiv and Moscow have so far resulted in several local ceasefires and the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, but Russia has repeatedly been accused of violating these agreements.
“I don’t have high hopes, but we will do everything to get the most out of it,” Kuleba said ahead of the Antalya meeting, saying “everything will depend on the instructions Lavrov receives.”
During a first bilateral meeting with Mr. Cavusoglu, Mr. Kuleba indicated that he would insist with his Russian counterpart on “an immediate ceasefire”, “an improvement in the humanitarian situation in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy , Volnovakha and other Ukrainian cities”, and “a withdrawal of Russian troops” from Ukrainian territory, according to a press release from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
In the meantime, Russia maintains a bombing campaign and a siege of major cities. Like the bombardment on Wednesday of a children’s hospital in Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov (southeast) besieged by Russian forces.
Three people, including a girl, perished there, announced in a new report Thursday the town hall of Mariupol, which reported the day before 17 wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who condemned a “war crime”, shared videos showing the destruction, after an air raid, of the establishment. Interiors of buildings can be seen blown away, debris, sheets of paper and shards of glass littering the ground.
The White House for its part denounced a “barbaric” use of force against civilians, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the bombing “immoral”.
The bombardment occurred while women were giving birth in the hospital, which had just been re-equipped, a member of the military administration of the Donetsk region told AFP.
The Russian government did not deny the attack, but claimed that Ukrainian “nationalist battalions” were using the hospital as a firing base.
The nine days of siege of Mariupol have already killed 1,207 people, the town hall said on Wednesday evening.
In its latest report on Wednesday, the UN estimated that 516 civilians have been killed and more than 800 injured in Ukraine since the start of the invasion, which threw more than two million refugees on the roads of exile.
Surround Kyiv
In a situation update at midnight local time (2200 GMT Wednesday), the Ukrainian General Staff said that Russian forces were continuing their “offensive operation” to encircle Kyiv, while attacking on other fronts the cities of ‘Izioum, Petrovske, Hrouchouvakha, Sumy, Okhtyrka, or in the regions of Donetsk and Zaparojie.
Northeast of Kyiv, plumes of smoke rose Thursday morning above Skybyn, less than a kilometer from Kyiv, an AFP journalist noted. The road was cut and the soldiers warned that artillery fire could start at any time.
Two women and a 13-year-old boy were killed in a night bombardment in Velyka Pysarivka, according to the head of the military administration of the region of Sumy (northeast), Dmytro Jivitsky.
Humanitarian corridors were opened again on Thursday morning to allow the evacuation of civilians from areas hard hit by the fighting, which forced the inhabitants of several large cities to remain sometimes for days hidden in cellars.
At least 35,000 civilians were evacuated on Wednesday from Sumy, Enerhodar and areas near the capital Kyiv, President Zelensky announced on Wednesday evening.
“Military assistance”
The elected Americans of the House of Representatives adopted Wednesday evening a new American federal budget which includes an envelope of nearly 14 billion dollars for the Ukrainian crisis.
The text, which includes an economic and humanitarian component, but also deliveries of arms and ammunition for Kyiv, must now be voted on in the Senate.
The IMF on Wednesday also approved emergency assistance amounting to 1.4 billion dollars for Ukraine.
Washington, on the other hand, has definitively rejected Poland’s proposal to deliver its Mig-29 planes to the American army so that they can then be handed over to Ukraine, deeming Warsaw’s offer “risky” and likely to cause an escalation. Russian.
From the beginning, the Americans and their allies have worked to help Ukraine while avoiding the direct involvement of NATO member states.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday accused the United States of funding a biological weapons program in Ukraine, saying it had found evidence to that effect in Ukrainian laboratories.
On the European Union side, the Heads of State and Government of the 27 Member States will discuss Thursday and Friday in Versailles, near Paris, the economic and security challenges posed by the war in Ukraine in Europe.
After two weeks of conflict, Western sanctions are at the same time making their effects increasingly felt in Russia, while an increasing number of companies are withdrawing from the country after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The latest, Japanese video game giants Sony and Nintendo have announced the suspension of their shipments to Russia.